The Order of the Phoenix
by ClashChick
Summary: Basically a LupinTonks story, starting from when Tonks is first inducted into the Order.
1. The Message

Okay, so I know that I shouldn't be starting another story, because I'm just a horrible updater, but I'm stuck on all of my other stories, and I'm in a Harry Potter mood, so here goes. I promised myself that I would not post this unless I have at least two chapters, but I haven't written in a long time, and I just felt like it. And I promise that I'll come up with a better title sometime. This will eventually end up as a Lupin/Tonks story, by the way. I will also try to figure out an actual plot sometime.

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling. Enough said.

Chapter 1

Tonks stared at the slip of parchment that Mad-Eye Moody had just handed her. She quickly read the message written in green ink, then glanced up at Mad-Eye.

"I don't get it," she said blankly. "What's Number 12 Grim—"

"Shut up, girl!" growled Mad-Eye. "You're an Auror, for God's sake! Do you know nothing of secrecy? What if someone was spying on us, right here, right now?" He glanced distastefully at her poster of the Weird Sisters, as if the moving portraits of her favorite band were going to jump over into the next cubicle and tell it's occupant of what Tonks and Mad-Eye were talking about. Tonks, who was used to Mad-Eye's paranoia, just rolled her eyes.

"Sorry, I just don't get—"

"Memorize the message on the parchment. Burn it when you're done. Meet me outside my cubicle when your shift is over. Got it?" Without waiting for an answer, Mad-Eye clunked out of her cluttered cubicle to his own a few spaces down. Tonks glanced at her watch and rolled her eyes once more. Her shift ended in exactly two minutes. She decided to spend those precious 120 seconds following Mad-Eye's bizarre instructions.

She read over the parchment again.

_Number 12 Grimmauld Place, London, is the site of the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix._

Once Tonks was sure that she could remember it, she set the parchment alight with the tip of her wand. She carelessly threw the flaming parchment into the wastebasket beside her desk, which promptly burst into flames.

"Oops," she muttered, aiming her wand at the ball of flame that was her garbage. "Aguamenti." Water sprayed from the tip of her wand, soaking all of the papers on her desk and failing to put out the small fire. The only thing she succeeded in doing was making the wastebasket shoot flaming balls of rubbish at her, one alighting her hair. She let out a cry of frustration and quickly extinguished the small flame burning her spiky pink locks.

A shiny, bald head poked up from the cubicle to her left. "Are you okay, Nymphadora?" the man asked in a deep voice.

"Don't call me that," Tonks grumbled, still engaged in war with her cubicle. The man managed to send a concentrated jet of water at the fire, which quickly was put out.

"Thanks, Kingsley," Tonks said, relieved. She now set about drying her papers with her wand. As Kingsley winked and disappeared back into his own workspace, Tonks heard a familiar clunking noise. She turned around to see a clearly disgruntled Mad-Eye standing in front of her.

"When I say two minutes, I mean two minutes!" he growled. "It's been nearly two and a half!"

"Sorry, must've lost count of the seconds there," Tonks snarled sarcastically as she attempted to clean up her office a bit. Mad-Eye slowly took in the sad sight of her soggy (and partly charred) cubicle.

"What in Merlin's name did you do?" he asked slowly, not really seeming to want to know the answer.

"Set fire to my wastebasket," Tonks said a matter of factly, now stacking slightly drier papers (they were still a bit damp).

"What did you do that for?" he asked her, staring.

"I didn't do it on purpose!" she cried exasperatedly. She saw Mad-Eye glance at the clock.

"We're one and a half minutes late, let's go," he grumbled. Tonks heaved an enormous sigh and followed him on their way out of the Ministry of Magic, wondering what she was in for.

**A/N Please review, and let me know what you think! This is my first Harry Potter fic, so no flames please, though constructive criticism is of course welcomed.**


	2. Grimmauld Place

Okay, I got some good reviews for the last chapter, which is good, right? So I had a bit of another chapter put together, and decided to see how it goes. It may sound a little awkward at first, but I'll try to fix it sometime. Here's chapter two. Oh, and once again, J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter. If I owned it, some certain people who had died would still be alive. But sadly, I don't own it. So here's my next chapter.

Chapter 2

"This is the headquarters?" Tonks asked incredulously, taking in the filthy, grimy square that she and Mad-Eye were standing in. "Don't you think that—"

"Quiet!" snapped Mad-Eye. "I'm honestly questioning whether or not you're fit to be an Auror! It's all about stealth and secrecy, and I'm doubting that you can handle that when you're shouting at the top of your lungs!"

"Sorry," Tonks said, dropping her voice to a whisper. She smirked. It was rather fun to get Mad-Eye worked up, though she had to be careful not to push him past a certain point, or else there was a very likely chance that he would fly off the handle and jinx her.

"So, what exactly is this Order thing?"

"It's a group of witches and wizards that are fighting against You-Know-Who," he whispered.

"Why do we have to keep it so hidden?"

Mad-Eye glanced at her exasperately. "Well, the Ministry will chuck us out immediately if they knew that we believed that he was back. According to them, Dumbledore and Harry are nutters. Have you been keeping up with the news?"

"Yes," she huffed. "I just--" She stopped, staring at the row of houses, noticing something strange. "Um, Mad-Eye? There's a teensy, weensy little problem. There isn't a number twelve." The grimy houses went right from number eleven to number thirteen.

"It's there," hissed Mad-Eye.

"Excuse my youthful ignorance, but I looked, and it's not there. See?"

Mad-Eye shut his eyes as though praying for the patience not to strangle her. "Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there," he said through gritted teeth. "Now shut up and remember what was on the parchment."

Tonks was sorely tempted to reply, "What parchment? I don't remember any parchment," but she figured that Mad-Eye could not handle that type of response at the moment. So with an effort, she stopped talking, and remembered word for word the strange message that the parchment bore. The moment she had finished reading through the message in her head, a house began to materialize between houses eleven and thirteen. Astonished, she followed Mad-Eye up the crumbling steps and onto the stoop where they stood before a large, peeling black door. It had a silver knocker that was shaped like a serpent. Tonks reached up to take the knocker, only to have her hand pushed away by Mad-Eye.

"Here's a tip to you," he said, "whenever you come here, whatever you do, do not ring the doorbell, and if you can help it, try not to knock."

"Why?" asked Tonks curiously.

"Because I said so," Mad-Eye replied, tapping the door lightly with his wand. There was a clinking sound of many locks unlocking, and then, with a slight creak, the door swung inward.

"Go quietly in," Mad-Eye. "Be careful not to knock anything over."

Tonks nodded, but she hadn't taken three steps inward when she tripped into something. She fell to the floor with a loud thud, and the object that had tripped her, a strange umbrella stand that looked suspiciously like a troll's leg, fell with her with a loud crash.

Tonks looked up to apologize to Mad-Eye, who looked scandalized, but before she could say a word, and earsplitting scream pierced the air. She looked around wildly to see who it was, only to see a strange portrait of an old woman yelling her head off.

Mad-Eye quickly stumped over to the portrait and attempted to pull the curtains closed, but no matter how hard he pulled, they curtains refused to come together.

"Get over here, girl!" he roared over the shrieking.

"FILTHY BLOOD TRAITORS AND HALF BREEDS, BITS OF DIRT, HOW DARE YOU BESMIRCH THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS!" the woman screamed, her yellowish eyes popping, and spittle flying.

Tonks quickly seized the other curtain, and with a huge effort, she and Mad-Eye managed to force the curtains shut, which cut the screaming off abruptly.

"What—in the world—was _that_?" Tonks panted, leaning against the wall. Before Moody could answer, someone came thundering down the stairs.

"Stupid portrait, wish I could find a way to—" the man stopped short as he came face to face with Mad-Eye and Tonks. Tonks stared at him.

"Sirius?" she asked tentatively. The man gave her a weak grin.

"Hey, cousin," he said.

"_Sirius_?" she asked again, her voice rising.

"Shh, keep it down!" Sirius exclaimed. "You don't want to wake my mum again, do you?"

"But—but—Mad-Eye, it's Sirius Black!" she said hysterically. "Why aren't you doing something?"

"He's innocent," Mad-Eye growled quietly. "Let's go to the kitchen, we don't want to risk waking her again…"

He jerked his thumb towards the screaming portrait, and Tonks, deciding that she liked her eardrums the way they were, followed him and Sirius down the hall. The thick, dusty carpet muffled the sound of Mad-Eye's wooden leg, and little clouds of dust exploded out of the carpet everytime someone took a step. The house smelled derelict and damp, and the overall aura of the place was a bit depressing.

Tonks followed the two men into a large, gloomy kitchen. There was a long, wooden table with many chairs set in the middle of the room. Mad-Eye gestured for her to have a seat, and she nervously sat down in the chair opposite of Sirius.

"If you're wondering whether or not I'm a mass murderer," Sirius said, smiling slightly, "I'm not. I was framed. It was really that little toerag, Peter Pettigrew."

"Peter Pettigrew? But didn't you kill him too?" Tonks asked, frowning. Sirius snorted.

"No. He cornered me, yelled about how he didn't know how I could betray James and Lily, blew apart the street with his wand behind his back, and got away. He's a rat. Literally. He's an unregistered Animagus, so he just transformed into a rat and got away."

"But—but they found his finger—"

"Cut it off himself," said Sirius grimly. "Probably thought that he was being a clever little boy."

"But—sorry for asking this—_did _you betray the Potters?"

Sirius snorted again. "Of course not. James was one of my best mates, and Lily. I would never have betrayed them. While Voldemort was looking for them—" he ignored Tonks' flinch when he said the name Voldemort, "I was their Secret Keeper. To throw Voldemort off track—oh, come on, it's not hard to say—I switched with Peter, thinking that no one would think him capable of such a task. Apparently, he ran off to his beloved master, and that very night, Voldemort—get a _grip_—turned up in Godric's Hollow, and…well…you know the rest." Sirius fell silent.

"Oh…okay," said Tonks. "You know, I remember you from when we were young, and you never exactly struck me as the murderous type."

Sirius chuckled. "Good to know. You know, your mum, Andromeda, was always my favorite cousin."

"Really?"

"Oh, yeah. She never really believed in the rest of the 'pure-blood' rubbish that the rest of our family believed in."

"Oh." Tonks couldn't think of anything to say. She hadn't seen Sirius since she was a young girl. He looked nearly the same, though a bit older and thinner from Azkaban. He had long, unkempt dark hair, and black, twinkling eyes. His face looked like it used to be very handsome, though it was rather wasted now.

"Is anyone else here?" Mad-Eye asked, taking a swig from his ever present hip flask.

"Well, Remus is upstairs, sleeping. I'm honestly surprised that my mum's screaming didn't wake him up. Voldemort could come and blow this house up, and he would never know, he'd keep on sleeping," Sirius said, smiling slightly. "Last night was—er—" He shot a nervous glance towards Tonks. "Tough for him," he finished. Mad-Eye nodded. "Everyone else should be here soon. Molly should be coming, although I believe that Arthur has to work, and I think their kids are staying home. Kingsley—"

"Kingsley's in this?" Tonks asked, surprised.

"Yeah, who'd you think recommended you for this?" Sirius said, smiling. "Mad-Eye had his doubts—" Tonks snorted—"but Kingsley thought you were more than capable of doing this."

"Who else is in this?" she asked.

"Oh, you'll meet everyone during the meeting," Sirius said, waving a hand dismissively. "By the way, Mad-Eye, Molly wanted me to tell you that Mundungus has been--"

But what exactly Mundungus had been doing, Tonks never found out, because she was hit by the sudden, overwhelming urge to pee. She stood up so quickly that she knocked her chair to the floor. Concerned, Sirius stared up at her, while Mad-Eye just snorted.

"Where's the bathroom?" she asked desperately.

"Er--just--go down the hallway we came in from, and go up the stairs, it's the third door on your left."

Tonks immediately took off sprinting. She tore down the hall, and thundered up the stairs, trying to reach the toilet before she wet her pants. Suddenly, a man stepped out of the doorway ahead of her. She gasped as she tried to slow down, but it was no use. She had gained too much momentum. Before she knew it, she had crashed into him, and suddenly found herself laying on top of him.

"Erm--sorry about that--I have to go to the bathroom--"

And before the man even had time to reply, she had gotten off of him, ran into the bathroom and slammed the door shut behind her. She immediately relieved herself. Feeling much better, she washed her hands and exited the bathroom, wondering if she would find the poor man that she had flattened still lying on the floor. She glanced out, but the hallway was clear. Shrugging, she headed back downstairs.

She entered the table to find Sirius, Mad-Eye and her victim sitting at the table. They were all talking, and as she walked in, Sirius grinned at her.

"You were just so excited to meet my friend Remus here that you had to give him a black eye, eh?"

"What?" she asked, and the man she had smacked into turned around. She saw that he was holding an ice pack to his face, and when he lifted it away, she saw that his eye was puffy and red, and already starting to bruise.

"I'm so sorry!" she gasped. "I didn't even know--how did I do that?"

"Your elbows landed on my face rather hard," the man said, though he was smiling. "One of them dug into my eye."

"I'm sorry," she moaned. "I just really had to pee."

The man chuckled. "I'm glad that you didn't wet your pants, then, or else that could have been rather messy." She blushed and grinned sheepishly. The man, Remus, was rather good looking, though his young face was prematurely lined. He had dark brown hair that was going grey. His eyes were a warm, dark brown, rather like the color of liquid chocolate. His robes were rather ragged and worn, as though he didn't have too much money.

"This is my lovely cousin, Nymphadora Tonks. She prefers, for some unfathomable reason, be be known only as Tonks." Sirius gestured at Remus. "This is my friend, Remus Lupin."

"Pleased to meet you," Remus said, giving her a warm smile. Tonks, for some reason, felt a strange squirm somewhere in her abdomen.

"Well, people are already in the meeting room, a few of them arrived while you were in the loo, Tonks, and we might as well set up while we're waiting for the rest to show." He got to his feet, and the rest of them followed suit. Tonks followed her cousin, Remus and Mad-Eye down the hall, ready for her very first Order of the Phoenix meeting.


	3. The Meeting

Okay, so I've been getting positive reviews so far, and this story is fun to write, so I'm definitely continuing, mainly for my own amusement. So here is chapter three!

Chapter 3

Mad-Eye, Sirius, Remus and Tonks entered a room to their left off the hallway. About five or six people were already sitting in chairs that they had conjured up.

"Right, we'll wait until everyone else gets here, and then we'll introduce you," said Sirius. "I don't think as many people are coming tonight, lots of them are on duty or have other work to get to."

They all sat down in chairs, and Tonks waited nervously while the rest of the witches and wizards in the room chatted amicably. She overheard Sirius and Remus talking next to her.

"D'you reckon Snape's going to show?" Sirius said in a low voice.

"I don't know, probably," Remus replied, frowning slightly.

"Snape?" Tonks burst out. Remus and Sirius turned towards her, startled.

"Yes…" Remus said, looking puzzled. "Do you know Severus?"

"Yeah," said Tonks. "He was my Potions master years ago. We hated each other. I wasn't that great at Potions, I managed to melt about four or five cauldrons in my fifth year."

Sirius grinned. "Remus here wasn't so good at Potions either, were you?"

Remus flushed. "I wasn't any worse than you," he retorted. Sirius raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, come on, nothing compares to the time your potion exploded out of the flask and set our professor's desk and robes on fire." Tonks started laughing, and Remus smiled.

"Well, you happened to join me in detention because you dumped _your_ potion on a Slytherin boy's head, and he broke out in boils, d'you remember that?" Remus said. Sirius chuckled.

"Ah, yes, I do remember that quite well, actually. He deserved it, though. He was a git."

Tonks shook her head. "You guys were troublemakers?"

"Oh, yeah," said Sirius breezily. "I'll admit that Remus was the good boy among us, he was made prefect in fifth year. Ah, we never stopped tormenting him for that…as far as he was convinced, it was an honor, but the rest of us agreed that it was a disgrace, eh, Moony?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "It was _not _a disgrace, Sirius—" But he was cut off by Tonks.

"Why'd you call him Moony, Sirius?" she asked curiously. She saw them glance at each other.

"It was our nickname for him in school," Sirius answered easily.

"But why Moony?" she persisted. "And what was yours?"

"Mine was—erm—Padfoot," he said. "Why are you so curious?"

"I dunno, you guys just didn't strike me as the type to—well, okay, maybe Sirius—but—"

"Yeah, well, me and James were the big troublemakers," Sirius said, grinning. "Remus was the good boy, and Peter…" his face fell. Tonks decided to change the subject quickly.

"So…could you tell me who all these people are?"

"Oh. Sure. Right, that witch over there's Emmeline Vance…the wizard she's talking to, he's Sturgis Podmore…Hestia Jones, see the witch with the black hair? That's her…Dedalus Diggle's the wizard who just fell out of his chair, see him? He gets excited a bit too easily. You know Kingsley and Mad-Eye, obviously. That's Elphias Doge, and the bloke he's talking to's Mundungus Fletcher."

"Okay…" Tonks said slowly, positive that she wouldn't be able to remember all of these names.

"Oh, look, Molly's here…that's Molly Weasley, and her oldest son, Bill. They're nice people, you'll like them. Molly will probably make dinner, you can stay and talk to everyone then. And you've met my friend Remus here, seeing as you bowled him over on the way to the bathroom."

"When is the meeting going to start?" Tonks asked, the nerves returning.

"As soon as Dumbledore gets here," Remus replied. "Are you okay?"

"What? Oh, yeah—just a little—nervous," she said. He gave her a warm smile, and her stomach flipped. She had a feeling that it had nothing to do with nerves.

"You'll be fine, everyone will like you," he said. "Even though I must admit, your pink hair is interesting."

She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. Was that an insult, or a compliment? She desperately hoped that it was the latter.

He seemed to read her thoughts. "I like it," he said, grinning, before he turned back to Sirius. Tonks smiled. He was nice, and truly friendly guys could be hard to come by.

"Hey, Sirius?" she said slowly. "Isn't that—?"

"Snape," hissed Sirius. He was staring at a man that had just entered the room. He had long, greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and cold, black eyes. Tonks shuddered.

"He always creeped me out a bit," she admitted.

"He is a creep, that's why," snarled Sirius. He glared at Snape for a minute longer, then turned away.

"Why do you hate him so much? I mean, I don't like him either, but you seem to really hate him, and I'm just wondering why," Tonks asked tentatively. Sirius stared at her.

"I don't know, I just—" He was interrupted by the sudden arrival of Albus Dumbledore. Everyone took their seats, and the room fell silent.

"Thank you," said Dumbledore quietly. "Now before we get started on business, I would like to welcome Nymphadora Tonks to our group today."

Tonks flushed and gave a small wave around to the room at general. Nearly everyone beamed back at her, but she looked towards Snape and saw that his lip was curling. Feeling unsettled, she looked around at Sirius, who was grinning at her.

"Now that that matter is out of the way, we have some business to attend to. I know this is on very short notice, but tomorrow, we need a group of people to go and remove Harry Potter from his home. As many of you may know, he and his cousin were attacked by dementors approximately two days ago. We assume that the dementors turned up in Little Whinging because of him, and it is crucial to his safety that we remove him as soon as possible. I need a few volunteers."

Many people raised their hands, Tonks one of them. Tonks glanced sideways to see Remus raising his hand, too. Looking around the room, she saw that Mad-Eye had his hand up, Hestia Jones, Kingsley, and a few others had raised their hands, too. She was surprised at the amount of people volunteering, but Dumbledore just chuckled.

"The more, the merrier," he said. "Remus, Nymphadora, Alastor, Hestia, Kingsley, Dedalus, Elphias, Emmeline, and Sturgis, you will all depart on broomsticks tomorrow evening at approximately six o'clock. We can't risk using the Floo network, Harry can't apparate, and setting up an unauthorized Portkey would not be ideal. We need someone to lure his relatives out of the house, so we can take him without a struggle. Who would like this task?" Tonks raised her hand, eager to please everyone. She saw the look of doubt on Mad-Eye's face and became even more determined to do a good job.

"Nymphadora, I trust you to come up with an idea, and put it into action," said Dumbledore seriously.

"I'll do it right away," she said excitedly. Her very first assignment for the Order! She couldn't wait.

After a few more matters had been discussed, the meeting was wrapped up. Dumbledore bade them farewell, and left, apologizing profusely to Molly Weasley that he couldn't stay for dinner. Molly then made her way over to Tonks, who was still standing beside Remus and Sirius.

"Nymphadora, dear, you're welcome to stay for dinner, of course," Molly said, beaming at her. "Remus, are you staying?"

Seeing Remus nod, Tonks turned to Molly, saying, "I think I will, Mrs. Weasley, thank you."

She blushed. "Please, dear, call me Molly."

Tonks smiled. "If you wouldn't mind, could you call me Tonks, then, instead of Nymphadora?"

"Oh—of course, dear. Well, I must get dinner started." With that, she hurried out of the room.

"Molly makes delicious meals," said Sirius as he and Remus started cleaning up the room, vanishing the chairs. Nearly everyone was gone now, except for Snape. Tonks was horrified to see her former Potions master making his way over to them.

"I just wanted to—_congratulate _you, Nymphadora," he said, sneering, "on becoming part of the Order. I'm sure that you'll do as well in here as you did in my potions classes."

Tonks blushed, not sure of what to say. It was obviously an insult, as she was horrendous at potions. Before she could speak up, however, Remus turned to Snape.

"I'm sure that she will do exceptionally well," he said coolly. Snape raised an eyebrow.

"Of course. Let's just hope that she makes Dumbledore proud," he said, giving Remus a cold stare. "If Dumbledore trusts her, then that should be enough for all of us, shouldn't it? I mean, he trusts _you_…."

The blood drained out of Remus' face. Sirius, who had amazingly remained quiet until this moment, turned to Snape and said very nastily, "You can leave, now, Snivellus."

"Turning back to old nicknames, are we, Black?" Snape hissed. "I really don't think that you're in the position to be giving me orders."

"Seeing as it's my house, I think I am," snarled Sirius. "Now leave before I hex you."

Snape flushed, then turned on his heel and angrily stalked out of the room.

"C'mon, Molly will be wondering where we are," Remus muttered. Tonks wanted desperately to ask what Snape had meant when he said that Dumbledore trusted Remus, but she had a feeling that he wouldn't be too keen to discuss that, so she just nodded and followed them out of the room. As she walked down the hall, Snape's words came back to her, and she couldn't help but wonder if she would let everybody down.

**A/N Okay, I'm starting to develop a bit of writer's block here, and this chapter was sort of difficult for me to write. Sometime, I'll probably go back and edit some parts. If anyone has any constructive criticism or advice for me or anything, please review. Let me know what you think! I'll try to update soon, but I'm going away for about a week, so I don't know when the next time I'll be able to update is. Please review!**


	4. Dinner

Yay! I'm back! Okay, thanks everyone for your great reviews, keep it up! I'm still suffering from a bit of writer's block, though not as bad—I thought about the story a bit over vacation. So here's the next chapter. It's kind of pointless and awkward, but I'm hoping that if I write at least a little, this writer's block will go away. Hopefully.

Chapter 4

Tonks, Sirius and Remus entered the kitchen to see Molly at the stove, preparing something that smelled wonderful.

"What are you making, Molly?" Tonks asked, positively drooling. Molly turned around and smiled at her, while waving her wand at a bunch of potatoes that started peeling and slicing themselves.

"Just some stew," she replied. "It's not much, but if I have time I'll whip up some meat pies—"

She turned back to the stove, muttering to herself. She, Sirius and Remus took seats at the empty table.

"Molly's an excellent cook," explained Sirius. "She says that she'll 'whip up a little something', and next thing you know, you've got a feast."

"Good, I'm starving," said Tonks enthusiastically. Sirius grinned appreciatively.

"So, how did you think the meeting went?"

"Great," said Tonks, her smile fading. "Look, I thought about what Snape said. What if I—"

"Ah, you'll do fine," Sirius reassured her. "Don't listen to that slimy old git. So what are you planning to do to get the Muggles out of the house?"

"I dunno. I was thinking that if I have time after dinner, or maybe tomorrow, I would go walking by their place, you know, see their habits—"

"I don't know if that's a good idea," said Remus at once, speaking for the first time in a few minutes.

"Why not?" Tonks asked curiously.

"Well…they're the sort of Muggles that…honestly, I think your hair would offend them more than anything else," he said, a slightly apologetic note to his voice as he gestured at her bubblegum pink locks.

"Oh, that's no problem," she said, screwing up her face. Immediately, her hair grew and faded to a light, honey blonde. "How's this? This better?"

"But—how—are you a Metamorphmagus?" Remus asked in disbelief. "They're really rare, aren't they?"

"Oh, yeah. But I am one. Convenient, really. Made passing parts of my Auror exams really easy," she said conversationally.

"Yeah, I forgot about that," said Sirius, surveying her new hairstyle with interest.

"I think the Muggles will be fine with that, as long as you're not planning on making direct contact with them," said Remus, also observing her new look. "If I were you, I'd dress in—erm—more Muggle like clothes." Tonks glanced down at her violet traveling cloak. She immediately unfastened it to reveal ripped jeans, beat up sneakers and a black shirt bearing the title, "The Weird Sisters".

"This better?"

"Er—" said Sirius, trying to stifle a laugh.

"No offense, Nymphadora—"

"Tonks."

"Okay. Sorry. No offense, Tonks, but the Muggles will not appreciate that at all. You're better off wearing robes. Not that I have a problem with your outfit," he said quickly. "But these Muggles don't like anything…er…out of the ordinary."

"Oh, okay," she joked, "I'll just go out and buy a business suit, then."

Sirius raised his eyebrows. "From what I've heard from Harry, these Muggles are really…uh…Muggleish." Remus rolled his eyes. "A business suit would be the best, I'm sorry to say, my dear cousin."  
"Oh, screw the whole thing, then," she said furiously, her hair turning back to it's original pink spikes. "I just won't go for the bloody walk." She ran her hands desperately through her hair. "But what should I do? I can't think of anything!"

"You'll think of something," Sirius reassured her. "Just keep in mind that these Muggles are fairly neat, and take pride in their normal behaviors. They also take extreme pride in how neat their house, their car, and themselves look." He smiled at her. "You'll do fine. Just start thinking tonight, okay?"

"Okay," she muttered, discouraged. She had thought that the walk by the Muggles' place was a good idea, but Remus and Sirius obviously didn't think so. Then again, if the Muggles were as…_vain _and obnoxious as her cousin and his friend described them, then she decided that she didn't really want to take that walk. She sighed.

"Arthur and the children will be arriving in a few minutes," said Molly, setting a pot full of stew down on the table. "I invited them to join us for dinner, if you don't mind. Arthur just got off of work." Suddenly, a doorbell rang, and a shriek pierced the air. "That'll be them…oh, I _told_ Arthur not to ring the doorbell…" She hurried off to restore order to Mrs. Black's portrait and let her family in.

"Your mum's mad, Sirius," Tonks said, spooning some thick stew into her bowl.

"You think I don't know that?" he replied grumpily. Suddenly, they heard the shrieking stop.

"Thank god," muttered Tonks under her breath. That stupid woman's portrait was giving her a migraine.

Molly marched back into the kitchen with her husband and four of her red haired children.

"Remus, Sirius, you know my children, and Arthur," she said, nodding at them. "Nymphadora—sorry, dear—Tonks, this is Arthur, my husband. He works at the Ministry."

Tonks thought that he did look faintly familiar. She had probably seen him around at the Ministry of Magic. He was tall, thin, and balding, though what was left of his hair was just as red as his family's.

"This is Ron—" she indicated a tall, gangly freckled teenager, who gave Tonks a small wave—"Ginny, my youngest—" A small, pretty girl beamed at her—"And my twins, Fred and George."

"Hi, there," said the twins together. They were identical.

"I have three other sons, Bill, Percy and Charlie, but they're busy at work. Charlie is working with dragons in Romania, Bill is a Charm breaker for Gringotts, and Percy is at the Ministry. You'll probably meet them all later." The Weasley family quickly took seats. "Eat up, everyone!" said Molly.

"'Ow 'oo like erryown' in da Order?" mumbled Sirius, his mouth full of pie.

"What?" asked Tonks as Remus snorted in disgust. Sirius swallowed with enormous difficulty.

"How do you like everyone in the Order?" he repeated, shoveling more food into his mouth.

"Great. Everyone's friendly. Except for Snape," she said.

"Yeah, well, Snape doesn't count as a real person," said Sirius, viciously stabbing an innocent piece of meat with his fork. "He's part bat, he is."

Tonks giggled. "Always swooping around—"

"With that long black cloak—"

"Greasy hair—"

"Long nose—"

"Be fair," said Remus, though he had a smile on his face.

"You're one to talk. You dumped an entire boat of gravy on his head in our second year, right after we had met, remember that?"

"You?" asked Tonks in disbelief, staring at Remus who went slightly pink, but grinned nonetheless.

"Oh, but the best part was that he told Snape that there was no excuse now for not washing his hair." Sirius chuckled. "That was classic…"

"He was making fun of me," explained Remus at the surprised look on Tonks' face.

"I just can't see you making trouble," she said, now smiling herself.

"Yeah, well, it was mostly Sirius and James, but sometimes I did some—things."

"Mum tells me you're a Metamorphmagus," said Ginny suddenly. She had taken a seat next to Tonks, and Tonks could tell that she had been bursting to say this all along. "Are you—are you really?"

Tonks screwed up her face in concentration, and her nose immediately turned into a pork's snout. Ginny giggled, Remus smiled, and Sirius grinned.

"You looked better like that," he joked, as Tonks morphed her nose back to normal.

"Thanks," she replied sarcastically as Ginny kept on staring at her.

"But that is _so cool!_" she said enviously. "I wish _I _could do that…"

The rest of the meal passed fairly quickly. Though reluctant to leave, Tonks wanted to get a head start on her project, so she ate the very last bites of her pudding, then stood up.

"Sorry, Molly, I have to get going," she said apologetically as Molly tried to force some treacle tart upon her. "No, really, I have to go. Thanks so much for dinner, it was delicious."

"Are you coming round tomorrow?" asked Sirius.

"Yeah, probably, after work," Tonks replied.

"Okay. See you then."

"Bye, Remus," Tonks said, smiling at him.

"Bye, Tonks. See you tomorrow," he said.

She said goodbye to the rest of the Weasleys, Ginny in particular, who she had taken an immediate liking to.

It was strange, she thought as she quietly walked down the hall, past Mrs. Black's portrait and out the front door, she had barely known these people, yet they felt like her family already.

With this comforting thought in her head, she turned on the spot in the dirty square and Disapparated home to get started on her first Order assignment.

**A/N I know that was very rushed, but I still have a bit of writer's block, and I'll go back to it as soon as possible and make some revisions. Please review!**


	5. Inspiration

Thanks so much to everyone for all of your great reviews. I've gotten nothing but positive reviews for this story so far, so now I know for sure that I really want to keep on doing this. Thanks in particular to **Rictumsempra **for pointing out a few errors that I made, helping me fix them. That said, here is chapter five!

Chapter 5

Tonks stared at the lime green wall of her bedroom. _Think, Tonks, think,_ she thought to herself. It was two in the morning, and she still had to think of an idea for her Order project. She could've just gone to bed and started fresh in the morning, but she was determined to at least have an inkling of what she was doing before she fell asleep. Frustrated, she glanced around her room, praying for inspiration. When none came to her, she sighed and decided to head down to the kitchen for a snack.

She opened the refridgerator door and pulled out some leftover Chinese. As she shut the door, a pink sticky note caught her eye. _Write to Mum and Dad. _Her face broke into a grin. That's it! She would write a letter!

Immediately, her sense of triumph and accomplishment started to wear off. What would she write the letter about? She groaned, put the Chinese back in the fridge and grabbed the Muggle newspaper that was laying on the table. She went back up to her room, laid the newspaper on her desk, and turned on the lamp. On her way home from Grimmauld place, she had stopped in a small convenience store and bought a Muggle newspaper, in the hopes that she could find out something that was happening in the Muggle world at the moment that she could use. She flipped past all of the trashy articles detailing Muggle stars' lives, past the stocks, and past a few small articles. She paused, then flipped back to a page full of small, rather insignificant looking articles. She scanned through them quickly, and was about to move on when a certain article caught her eye. It was titled "Drought Continues—Lawns, Crops Suffer." Grinning, she folded the newspaper open to that page. If the Dursley family were so proud about their appearance, how proud would they be with their lawn? Still smiling, she pulled out a piece of parchment. She was about to pull out a quill when she hesitated. Instead, she pulled out a ball point pen (a present from her Muggle born father) and got to work, hoping that it wouldn't be too suspicious that it was written, not typed, as she didn't own a computer. She wrote in her neatest writing, and when she was done, looked it over carefully.

_Dear Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Dursley,_

_ We are pleased to inform you that you have won the All-England Best-Kept Suburban Lawn Competition. We sent judges through various neighborhoods, and upon inspecting each lawn carefully, we were most impressed with how well kept yours was, in spite of the current drought._

_ As this is a great honor, we wish to present you with an award. This coming Tuesday, we ask you to come to the Town Hall to receive your award. We ask that your whole family is present, as this is a great accomplishment. _

_ Congratulations once again on your success with keeping your lawn lush and beautiful during this drought. We hope you can come to the award ceremony._

_Best wishes,_

_Jane King_

_President _

Satisfied, Tonks folded it carefully, placed it into an addressed envelope, and laid it on her desk. As she needed to use Muggle mail, she would have to wait for the morning. Exhausted, she quickly changed into her pajamas and crawled into bed. She immediately fell into a deep sleep, happy to have her first Order assignment under her belt.

**A/N I'm sorry that that was short, but I hope it was okay. I would greatly appreciate it if you guys reviewed and told me what you think! Thanks again to all of you guys that did review!**

**ClashChick**


	6. Early Morning Tea

Thank you, everyone, for all of your great reviews! They are greatly appreciated! Here is the next chapter.

Chapter 6

Tonks woke with a start. Glancing at the clock, she saw that it was only five in the morning. Yawning, she rolled over and tried to get back to sleep. After five minutes of tossing and turning, she gave up and rolled out of bed.

She made her way slowly and blearily down to the kitchen in the hopes of fixing herself some nice, warm tea. Those hopes were shattered ruthlessly when she opened her cupboard and saw no signs of tea. There wasn't any coffee or cocoa, either.

Tonks groaned. She _needed _something with caffeine, _needed _it! She couldn't remember the last time that she had started a morning without her tea or coffee. She sighed, then trudged back upstairs, still half asleep. She was about to crawl back into bed when she saw the letter sitting on the desk. She glared at it.

She had worried about it a little, as she wasn't sure if it was good enough. She had had some strange dreams involving being yelled at by Mad-Eye, and Kingsley calling her a 'disgrace to the Order.' In fact, near the end of the dream, she could barely remember Mad-Eye quite literally kicking her out of Grimmauld Place.

Tonks wasn't one to place much merit in dreams, but she felt somehow that this could be a sign that her letter wasn't going to work. Sighing, she picked up the unsealed envelope. Struck by a sudden idea, she quickly ran over to her closet and pulled out some clothes. She would head over to Grimmauld Place! Someone had to be there, someone who could proofread her letter!

Feeling rather relieved, she pulled on her usual outfit of ripped jeans, a t-shirt and heavy black combat boots. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she nodded approvingly. Perfect. She pulled on her violet traveling cloak, and tucked the letter into her pocket. Nearly wide awake now, she bounded down the stairs and out the front door. Making sure no Muggles were around, she turned on the spot and Apparated.

With a small pop, she appeared on the front stoop of Grimmauld Place. Now that she knew where it was, it was easy to find. She reached up to take the knocker, then hesitated. Hadn't Mad-Eye said not to knock or ring the doorbell, lest she wake Mrs. Black? Dear God, she didn't want to do _that _again, especially not at half past five in the morning. She tried the doorknob. It was locked. Not surprised, she stared up at the large black door, wondering how to get inside. Cringing, she did the only thing she could think of, and tapped the knocker against the door as lightly as she could.

She waited and waited. No one opened the door. _Big surprise_, she thought. It wasn't like anyone was going to be awake. She knocked again, a bit harder this time. To her immense surprise and relief, she heard muffled footsteps on the other side of the door. Assuming that it was Sirius, she was surprised when she saw the tired, pale face of Remus Lupin appear from inside.

"Nymphadora," he said, clearly surprised.

"It's Tonks, Remus," she corrected him. "Sorry, did I wake you?"

"No, no, I was awake already…come on in. Is everything all right?" He opened the door wider, and as soon as she was in the entrance hall, he closed it again and relocked it. He looked rather worried.

"Oh…no, everything's fine, I was just wondering…it's about my Order assignment," she said awkwardly. Now that she was here, she was having her misgivings. She should have stayed home and just mailed the bloody letter.

"Sure, let's come down to the kitchen. I was just making myself a cup of tea, would you like some?" He led her quietly past Mrs. Black's portrait and down to the cavernous kitchen.

"Yes, please," she said gratefully. He walked over to the stove where a pot of hot water was boiling. He pulled out another teacup and placed a teabag in it. Pouring the hot water over the teabags, he looked over at Tonks curiously as she took a seat at the table. "So what's wrong?"

"Oh, it's nothing bad, I just…well, I wrote a letter last night, you know, to get the Muggles out of their home, and I'm worried that it's not good enough," she said quickly.

Remus made his way over to the table with the two cups of tea and set one down in front of her. He opened the pantry door and took out a bowl of sugar. Heading back over to the table, he took a seat across from Tonks and promptly dumped no less than five spoonfuls of sugar into his tea.

"I like my tea rather sweet," he said unnecessarily. Tonks smiled as she put one spoonful of sugar into her tea.

"I hadn't noticed," she said teasingly. He grinned at her.

"Do you have the letter?"

"Yeah, right here. I was wondering if you could just…you know, read over it, and tell me if it's…er…okay," she said, handing him the letter. He unfolded it and started reading. Tonks sat nervously on the end of her chair as he continued to read. After what seemed like an eternity, he carefully folded the letter back up and pushed it across the table to her.

"Well?" Tonks said nervously. "How was it?"

"I don't know what you're worried about," Remus said calmly. "That was a brilliant idea, if I may say so."

"Really?" asked Tonks uncertainly. This definitely wasn't the reaction that she was expecting.

"Yes, your letter is fine, Tonks. I think that if that doesn't work, nothing will."

"Thanks," Tonks said, feeling a mixture of gratitude and relief. "It's just that—well, I want to—make a good first impression on everyone in the Order."

"That's quite understandable," Remus said, taking a large sip of his tea. Tonks did the same.

"So where's Sirius?" she asked conversationally.

"Oh, he's probably still sleeping," said Remus, draining his cup. "He always was a late sleeper. Though on occasion I do find him passed out in the kitchen during the middle of the night, holding his firewhiskey bottle." He smiled bitterly. "I've been telling him that he's been drinking too much, but I don't think that he's listening at all. I don't suppose that there's much more to do when you're trapped in a house."

Then, almost as if he had been cued, Sirius stumbled into the kitchen. "Having a party without me?" he yawned, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

"Wotcher, Sirius!" said Tonks brightly.

"Oh. It's you," he said, collapsing in a chair. Remus leaned toward her.

"Don't take it too personally, he's never exactly friendly when he wakes up," he whispered in her ear. She nodded, smiling.

"I've noticed."

"Talking about me, are you, Moony?" said Sirius, frowning at Remus. "You know I don't like that." Remus rolled his eyes. "Hey, Moony, would you mind grabbing a bottle of firewhiskey from the cupboard? Thanks."

"No, you've had too much to drink in the past few days, Sirius," said Remus sternly, heading over to the stove. "I'll get you a cup of tea, how's that?"

"I don't want any bloody tea," muttered Sirius under his breath, heading to the pantry and pulling out a bottle of liquor, hiding it under his shirt as Remus turned around.

"What are you getting?" Remus asked suspiciously.

"I'm looking for the sugar," said Sirius innocently. Remus, still looking suspicious, turned around again.

"It's already on the table."

"Oh, okay. Thank you, Moony," he said sweetly as he took his seat at the table again, and Remus set a steaming cup of tea in front of him. Remus narrowed his eyes at him as he grabbed his own empty cup and headed over to the sink to rinse them out. As soon as his back was turned, Sirius quickly pulled out the bottle, uncorked it and poured half of the contents into his tea. Just as quickly, he recorked it and set it under his chair. Tonks stifled a laugh as he took a deep swig of tea. "Aah, great tea, Moony. Really, I don't know how you do it."

Remus rolled his eyes as he sat back down at the table with a fresh cup of tea in hand. "I'm not as stupid as you think I am, Sirius, I know you put something into your tea."

"I did not!" said Sirius, acting offended. "Did you really think that I'd do something like that? I'm hurt, Moony, really hurt." He hid his grin in his teacup as he took another sip. Remus shook his head.

"So...why are you up this early?" Tonks asked Remus. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sirius pour something into Remus' teacup. Apparently, he didn't notice, because he answered Tonks and did not look towards Sirius.

"I just couldn't sleep. Why are _you _up this early?"

"Couldn't sleep," she admitted. Remus nodded and took a sip of his spiked tea. He immediately choked on it. Sirius thumped him on the back, grinning, as Remus tried to swallow the burning liquid. Finally, his face red and his eyes watering, he turned towards Sirius.

"You bastard!" he gasped hoarsely. "You put your damn firewhiskey in my tea, didn't you?"

"It's okay, Moony, no need to be embarrassed, some men just can't handle their liquor," said Sirius, smiling widely at Tonks, who was laughing.

"I can drink it just fine when I know what I'm drinking," Remus said weakly, now inspecting the rest of the innocent looking liquid in his cup. He took another cautious sip, and this time managed to swallow it without incident.

"So why did you stay the night here?" Tonks asked as soon as she had recovered from her giggles.

"I dunno, sometimes it's just easier to crash here," said Remus dismissively.

Tonks finished the rest of her tea, then reluctantly stood up. "I have to go home and get ready for work," she said, tucking her letter back into her pocket. "I should probably mail this before I leave."

"Right," said Remus. "Drop by later. Molly's cooking dinner."

"I'll try," said Tonks, secretly promising herself that she would do more than try to come to dinner. She was coming to appreciate Remus and Sirius' company more and more.

"See you later, cuz," Sirius said, grinning slyly at her. With a smile and a wave, she bounded out of the kitchen, through the front door, and onto the front stoop, where she turned on the spot and Apparated home, cheerful from her interesting morning tea.

**A/N Okay, this chapter had basically no plot, I just wanted to have a chapter where Tonks and Remus and obviously Sirius visit a little. Reviews will be greatly appreciated, so please, please review! And if any of you have noticed that my paragraphs are not indented, I'm sorry, for some reason, every time I try to correct them, they change back to normal. So anyway, review, please!  
**


	7. Eccentric Decision

Hey, I'm back. Sorry I haven't been able to update for a while, I've been busy, and I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update from now on, or for a while at least, because I'm getting busier, but I will try my hardest! Thanks again, for all the great reviews, they are greatly appreciated!

Chapter 7

Tonks entered her tiny Auror's office just a few minutes after leaving Grimmauld Place. Sighing wearily, she flung her cloak at her desk, where it skidded sideways and fell to the floor, bringing a bunch of papers with it. Crossing her cubicle in one stride, she picked up the pieces of parchment, leaving her cloak on the floor. Unceremoniously stuffing the papers into a drawer, she pulled a fresh stack of paperwork towards her. On top of the stack was a small note from Moody.

_Tonks,_

_ Finish this paperwork by the end of the workday if you want to go home tonight. I suggest you get started right away._

_ Moody_

She rolled her eyes. She was determined to finish, otherwise she would not be able to stroll by Privet Drive and drop off the letter in the Dursley's mail slot. She also wouldn't be able to go to dinner at headquarters. Picking up her quill in a defeated sort of way, she began the slow and tedious paperwork.

She hadn't been working for five minutes when she heard a vaguely familiar voice. "Nymphie?"

She froze. _Nymphie? _No one called her that. No one except…

"Jared?" she said, plastering a forced grin on her face as she turned around.

"Nymphie! Hey!" her ex-boyfriend greeted her as he entered her cubicle with the usual dopey looking grin on his face. He looked the same as he had three months ago when they broke up—black hair, green eyes—in fact, he reminded Tonks strongly of what she had seen of Harry (mostly in photographs), except without the scar and without the brains.

"Er, hi, Jared. Look, I have lots of work to do, so…why are you here?" she said awkwardly, trying her hardest to sound polite.

"I've missed you, Nymphie," he said wistfully, perching upon her desk.

"Don't call me that," she said, nudging him off. "Now why are you here?"

"Well, like I said, I've missed you. I was thinking that we could just, you know, get back together sometime."

Tonks stared at him. _Just get back together? _No way. Never.

"It's…really not that easy, Jared," she said, frowning at him.

"Why? Are you like, you know, seeing some other guy?"

"Er…not really," she said truthfully.

"Well then, let's go get a drink sometime, man!" he said enthusiastically.

"Don't call me _man_, either. And no, I don't want to go on a date with you, Jared, because I don't like you anymore."

Just as Jared opened his mouth to argue, a new visitor arrived at the entrance of her cubicle, a much more welcomed one—Remus Lupin.

"Remus!" Tonks said, surprised, though in a much different tone than she had used with Jared. "What are you doing here?"

"Hi," he said, smiling at her. "I see that Moody's got you busy already—" he gestured to the large pile of paperwork, which she scowled at—"but there's more paperwork for the Order that I'm afraid you'll have to fill out. I know, I know, it seems pointless, but Dumbledore says that there's really no rush, so take your time."

"Oh…" she said slowly, taking the folder of parchment that he held out to her. "Thanks."

"Molly also wanted to make sure that you're coming to dinner tonight," he added.

"Yes, I'll be there," Tonks said cheerfully. "Wouldn't miss her cooking for anything."

"Good," Remus said, and perhaps she imagined it, but Tonks thought that he too looked a bit more cheerful at her answer. There was a comfortable silence, broken when she felt Jared nudge her with his elbow.

"Oh, I completely forgot," Tonks lied, as she had been reluctant to introduce her ex-boyfriend to Remus. "Remus, this is my…erm…friend, Jared Whitehall. Jared, this is Remus Lupin."

"Hello, nice to meet you," Remus said politely. Jared just stared at him.

"I know you from somewhere…" Jared said.

"I don't believe we've met," Remus said, looking bewildered. Jared continued to stare at him. Remus was starting to look uncomfortable now. Tonks decided to save him.

"Well, I have to—"

But before she could finish, Jared had apparently had a revelation. "Dude, I know where you're from!"

"Where is that?" Remus said, frowning.

"You were in the paper this morning! Dude, I _knew _your name sounded familiar."

"Why were you in the paper?" Tonks asked Remus, her curiosity piqued now.

"Er—it wasn't really—"

"He was in an article about that Ministry lady that's working at Hogwarts, the toady one."

"Umbridge?" Tonks said. "Remus, why were you in an article about Umbridge?"

"My name was just mentioned, it was nothing really—" Remus said, clearly flustered. Tonks, who was now extremely interested, picked up a copy of that day's Daily Prophet that had been lying on her desk. Flipping through the newspaper, she found the article almost immediately, titled, "Ministry Seeks Educational Reform—Dolores Umbridge Appointed First-Ever 'High Inquisitor'".

"What the bloody hell is she doing now?" Tonks muttered to herself, now starting to scan the article. She heard Remus shift uncomfortably behind her.

_"'I feel much easier in my mind now that I know that Dumbledore is being subjected to fair and objective evaluation,' said Mr. Lucius Malfoy, 41, speaking from his Wiltshire mansion last night. 'Many of us with our children's best interests at heart have been concerned about some of Dumbledore's eccentric decisions in the last few years and will be glad to know that the Ministry is keeping an eye on the situation.'_

_ "Among those 'eccentric decisions' are undoubtedly the controversial staff appointments previously described in this newspaper, which have included the hiring of werewolf Remus Lupin, half-giant Rubeus Hagrid, and delusional ex-Auror 'Mad-Eye' Moody."_

Tonks quickly finished the rest of the article, then folded the paper up and turned to face the two men standing behind her.

"Well, I've always known that Moody was delusional," she joked, trying to break the tension in the room. Her half-hearted attempt to break the ice was greeted with silence. "I didn't know you taught at Hogwarts, Remus, that's really interesting," she said now, trying a different tactic.

"Erm…yes, only for a year," Remus muttered.

Jared narrowed his eyes at him. "You're a werewolf, dude. That blows, man."

Tonks turned to stare incredulously at Jared while Remus turned white. "I have to go," he said quickly. "I'll—er—I'll see you at dinner tonight, I guess." He turned and walked out of her office as quick as he could without running.

"Wait!" Tonks cried at his retreating back. "Remus, wait, come back—"

When Remus ignored her and kept on walking, she turned on Jared instead. "Really sympathetic, Jared. I'm honestly surprised that girls aren't falling at your feet."

"Huh?" Jared said blankly, looking up at her. He apparently hadn't been listening to a word that she said.

"Get—out," she hissed, pointing at the door.

"Nymphie, wait—"

"My—name's—not—Nymphie!" she said, her voice rising. "My—name—is—Tonks!"

"Nymphie, just listen—"

"GET OUT!" she roared. Jared looked at her, eyes wide, then immediately scurried out of her cubicle. Ignoring the heads that were popping up everywhere to investigate the source of the screaming, she collapsed back into her chair.

Remus was a werewolf. A _werewolf. _But he seemed so…nice. She immediately hated herself for thinking of that. _Just because he's a werewolf doesn't mean he can't be nice, _she thought to herself. And the more she thought about it, the less she cared. Remus was her friend, and nothing would change that.

Sighing, she returned to her paperwork, determined to finish so that she could deliver her letter and go to dinner. She was eager to go to dinner and tell Remus that it was okay, his problem didn't matter, that she didn't understand why he wanted to keep it hidden from her. She wanted to tell him that he was her friend, and she wanted to keep it that way.

**A/N I'm sorry, not my best, I know, but when I have time someday, I'll come back and…well, you know the drill, since I've said that for like half of my story. Anyways, review please, tell me what you think, leave suggestions, etc. Your reviews are greatly appreciated!**


	8. Akward Conversations

I'm back with another chapter! Thanks to my reviewer **hedwigs—pet—dalek **for pointing out to me that the article comes LATER in the story. That was a rather stupid mistake on my part, and I'll probably try and rewrite this chapter later, but for now, I can't think of a scenario to take it's place—and it IS FanFiction, so I guess it's not a sin if I leave it alone for now. In this chapter, I'll be continuing with that idea, if that's okay, because like I said, that's the only scenario that I have right now, so thanks for putting up with that. Thank you also, again, to all of my reviewers so far!

Chapter 8

Tonks quickly finished her last sheet of paperwork with a triumphant yell. She was finally done! It had taken her all day, but she hadn't let anything distract her, and see where it had gotten her! She excitedly shuffled all of the papers back into the folder, left it on her desk to give to Moody the next day, and grabbed her cloak. With a cheery wave to the rest of her fellow Aurors that were still working, she left the Ministry, but not before changing her appearance to a petite blonde woman.

A few minutes later, she found herself standing directly in front of Number 4, Privet Drive. With nervous glances toward the neighboring houses, she quickly jogged up their front sidewalk and pushed her decoy letter through the letter slot. Hoping that no one had seen her, or at least hoping that she didn't look too suspicious, she made her way down the street to a deserted playground. There, she changed her appearance back to normal, and looking around to make sure that there was no one around, she Apparated.

Appearing on the front stoop of Number 12 Grimmauld Place, she sighed with relief. The letter was gone, it was done with. She just hoped that it would work. Tapping the door with her wand (Mad-Eye had shown her how to do it so that the door would open for her) she quietly let herself in.

She successfully skirted the dreaded umbrella stand and quietly headed down to the kitchen, where she saw Molly and Sirius.

"Wotcher, Molly, Sirius," she said cheerfully. They turned in surprise.

"Tonks, dear, I wasn't expecting you this early!" Molly said, beaming at her. "I don't know who else is coming—it may just be a small dinner—but it's nice to have you here anyways."

Tonks took a seat across from her cousin. "Hey," he said, grinning up at her.

"Hi, Sirius," she said, taking the bottle of butterbeer that he offered her. After taking a long draught, she wiped her mouth and asked, "So how was your day today?"

Sirius sighed. "Boring. I did a bit of cleaning, yelled at Kreacher—oh, he's the house elf, you still haven't met him? Nasty old thing," he said at her look of confusion. He ignored Molly's reproving look and continued. "Took care of Buckbeak…you know, the usual. Not much to do when you're cooped up in a dingy dungeon like this place."

Tonks nodded sympathetically. "Mad-Eye dumped a load of paperwork on me today, but I finished it all. It's amazing what I can get accomplished when I stay focused." Sirius snorted. "I still have all of that Order paperwork Remus delivered to me, though." Suddenly, she remembered her encounter with Remus that morning and wondered why he wasn't here—he said he was going to be at dinner, hadn't he? "Where is Remus, by the way?"

"Now that you mention, I don't know," Sirius said, frowning slightly. "He said he had to deliver something to you at the Ministry, then I saw him come back and head upstairs to his room. He could be napping, I supposed. But when I went up to check on him, he seemed rather…moody. He told me that he was fine, but I know him better. Something's getting to him."

"Was it that article in the paper today?" Tonks suggested quietly. Sirius looked horrified.

"You saw that?"

Tonks nodded. "That Umbridge woman is an old toad. There's nothing wrong with hiring half-giants—or—or werewolves."

"Does Remus know you saw it?" Sirius asked softly.

"Er—he was there when I read it," Tonks said awkwardly. Sirius groaned.

"He was working hard to keep you from knowing, too."

"Why?" asked Tonks. "I don't care. He's a very nice man, and the fact that—the fact that—"

"He turns into a flesh ripping, killer beast each month?" Sirius offered. Tonks glared at him.

"I just…I just want him to know that I don't care, is all," she muttered. Sirius smiled.

"That'll mean a lot to him, you know. He's used to people hating his guts after they find out."

"Yeah…" They sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments, broken only by the sound of Molly's soft humming and the clang of pots and pans. "That article was one of the stupidest things I've ever read," she said. "'Hogwart's High Inquisitor'? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Sirius shook his head. "Beats me. 'Educational reform'…who are they kidding? As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing wrong with Hogwarts…but then again, no one really values my opinion, as I'm a wanted mass murderer."

Tonks laughed. "I suppose so." She fell silent for a moment, thinking. "I didn't know that Remus was a teacher," she said finally.

"Yeah, I think he enjoyed it," said Sirius, taking a swig of his Butterbeer. "He was always the smart one, when we were back at school we figured that he'd end up being a professor or textbook writer or something." He snorted. "Eccentric decision, my arse…that was one of the few jobs he's ever had, you know. Umbridge has been working hard to shun people like him from society, and she's doing a pretty good job of it."

Tonks felt a rush of anger at Umbridge, and at the Ministry. "That old hag. She's afraid of anyone that's different from herself…I met her once, and she looked at my hair like it had offended her personally or something!" Sirius chuckled, and she ignored him. "And just because someone's a werewolf doesn't mean that they're going to attack every person in sight!"

Sirius smiled at her. "You know, tell Moony some of this stuff later, he'll really appreciate it."

Tonks nodded, finishing her drink just as Kingsley strode into the room. "Hello, Molly," he said in his deep voice. "Hi, Sirius, Tonks." He winked at them.

"Hi, Kingsley, glad you could make it," Molly said breathlessly as she hurried to finish up dinner. "It should be ready soon, and Arthur and the children should be here any minute now. Sirius, could you go get Remus, please?"

"Sure," Sirius said, saluting Molly and getting up from his chair. He disappeared from the kitchen. No more than thirty seconds later Arthur Weasley strode in, followed by his red haired entourage of children. He gave a quick hello and a peck on the cheek to Molly, then turned to Kingsley and Tonks.

"Hello, you two," he said as he collapsed in a seat a few chairs down from Kingsley.

"Long day?"

"Oh, yes…we had a guy come in with a report of some biting teacups…we've seen these many times before, but a man lost three fingers…"

"Hi, Tonks," said Ginny Weasley brightly as she took the chair right next to Tonks. Tonks, who had immediately taken to the spunky young girl, grinned at her.

"Wotcher, Ginny, how're you?"

"Bored. Mum made us clean all day today. It's bad enough that she makes us clean this place, but then we all had to go home and clean our rooms too…"

"Is your room any cleaner?" Tonks asked, feeling that she knew the answer.

"Well, everything fit nicely into my closet," Ginny said slyly. Tonks laughed. "Hey, Tonks…I've been wondering…could you morph for me? I just want to see…if you don't, that's okay, but…I'm just curious."

"Sure," said Tonks, almost happy to show off to her newly found friend. Screwing up her face, she changed her snout to a pig's nose. Ginny started laughing.

"That's really cool, Tonks. Do something else." Tonks now morphed into a perfect mirror image of Ginny. The girl stared at her.

"Wow, that's creepy…it's like I have an identical twin," she said, fingering Tonks' long, red hair. "Mum would never know if I hid here and she went home with you…she would have a heart attack when she went in to say goodnight or something and you morphed into something else…" Tonks laughed at this idea, just as Sirius and Remus came back into the room. Tonks quickly morphed back into her usual pink, spiky haired self.

"Wotcher, Remus," she said as Sirius took his former seat and forced Remus into the seat next to him.

"Hello, Tonks," he muttered, not meeting her eyes. Glancing at her cousin, she saw him give her a meaningful look. Ginny, who sensed that her presence was awkward, got up quickly.

"I'll go help Mum with the rest of dinner," she said, and she walked away to join her mother at the stove, leaving an uncomfortable silence in her wake.

"So…I delivered my letter," she said, cringing inwardly at how lame her attempt to start a conversation was.

"That's good," Sirius said, glancing sideways at Remus, who was staring at the table silently. "Er…you excited about picking Harry up?"

"Oh yeah," she said, wanting to crawl into a hole and die. She and Sirius sounded really intelligent right now; it was a wonder that Remus wasn't jumping to join in on their conversation. Mr. Weasley unknowingly saved their awkward attempts at conversation by coming over with two of his sons.

"Tonks, I don't believe that you've met Bill?" he asked, gesturing a young man with a long red ponytail and an earring shaped like what looked like a dragon claw. "This is my son, Bill. Bill, this is Nymphadora Tonks."

"Like the hair," Bill said, grinning, as he shook her hand.

"Thanks," Tonks said, returning the grin. "Just call me Tonks."

"And this is my son, Charlie. I believe you were in the same year, so you may remember each other…?"

"Hey, Charlie," Tonks said eagerly. "Long time no see!" She did, in fact, remember Charlie. They hadn't been best friends, but they had talked Quidditch tactics every once and a while during their years together in school. She had been in Hufflepuff, but they had a few classes together and became friendly with each other.

"Hey, Tonks," he said. "Hi, Sirius, Remus, what's up?"

"Hi, Charlie," Sirius responded. "How're the dragons?"

"As good as ever. How've you been, Remus?"

"Good," Remus said, speaking for the first time in a while. He looked up briefly to give Charlie a weak smile, then immediately returned to staring at the table. Charlie, Bill and their father returned to their seats further along the table. Tonks took a deep breath.

"Remus…" she began, before she was cut off by Mrs. Weasley.

"Dinner is served!" Molly said, using her wand to levitate plates of food toward the table. Everyone eagerly helped themselves immediately, and a light chatter started up along the table as everyone began greeting each other.

"Remus, I just wanted to say that—"

"Not right now, okay, Tonks?" he said shortly, looking up into her eyes for a fleeting moment before looking back down at his plateful of chicken. "I don't want to talk about it right now."

Tonks opened her mouth to argue, but then decided against it almost immediately. Thinking, she ladled some soup into her bowl absentmindedly, almost dumping the entire spoon into her lap. Maybe Remus didn't want to talk, but she did. She was just going to have to make him.

Formulating plans of cornering him after dinner, she started a light conversation with Sirius, pretending like she had forgotten all about it, hoping to catch Remus off his guard.

**A/N Why can I never think of good ending lines? Oh well. Please read and review. I cannot tell you how much I want you to review. Even if it's a one worded review, that would be great! **


	9. Talking

I am back! Thanks to both **SeraphineBlack **and **Snowlia **for pointing out that Tonks was in Hufflepuff, not Gryffindor. I have corrected that, and just wanted to thank them again, because since I obviously don't notice my own mistakes, I am grateful when people let me know about them. Okay, done with the rambling, here's chapter nine!

Chapter 9

All throughout dinner, Tonks kept sneaking glances at Remus. He was chewing slowly, still focusing on his food and not making eye contact with anybody else. For a while, Sirius tried to draw him into the conversation, but it was obvious that Remus wasn't keen to talk, so after a while, Sirius left him to eat his pie in peace.

Tonks was having a hard time understanding why he was so upset. Did he think that she wouldn't like him anymore? Did he think that she would treat him differently now that she found out that he had a problem that probably wasn't his fault? For once, Tonks was eager for dinner to end and for Molly's food to disappear so that she could talk to Remus, whether he wanted to or not.

For the remainder of the meal, she chatted casually with Ginny, until finally, the last bites of dessert were gone, and Molly started to clean up. Tonks waited until Remus got up and walked his dishes over to the sink. He said something to Molly, and she smiled and patted him in the shoulder. He then walked slowly out of the room, heading, she assumed, for his bedroom.

Tonks quickly grabbed her dirty dishes and rushed them over to the sink. In her hurry, she dropped the plate and shattered it.

"Reparo," she said hastily, handing the now mended plate to Molly. "Thanks for the dinner, Molly, it was delicious. I would stay and help clean up, but I have to go talk to someone…"

Molly smiled and thanked her, seeming almost a little relieved that she wasn't helping with the clean up. Tonks hurriedly walked out of the room and started heading to where she guessed Remus had gone.

She went quietly up the stairs until she reached the landing. Looking down the hall, she wondered which room he was in until she spotted that the door second to her left was ajar.

She walked as softly as she could without tripping over her feet until she reached his room. She pushed the door open slowly to see him sitting slumped on the edge of the bed.

"Remus?" she said tentatively, wondering if he had heard her. He obviously hadn't, because he jumped and stared up at her with wide eyes.

"Nymphadora! You—you scared me," he said. Tonks decided to let his use of her first name go.

"I want to talk to you," she said, sitting on the bed next to him. "Please let me."

"Sorry you had to find out that way," he mumbled.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"I guess I should've told you…you know, instead of you finding out from a newspaper…but…something held me back…I think I just liked the idea of someone not knowing what I was."

"I was like a clean slate."

"Exactly." He sighed. "Look. I understand if you don't want to talk to me anymore. That's perfectly understand—"

"Remus, don't you get it?" she asked, starting to get exasperated. "I wouldn't be in here talking with you if I were afraid of you. But I'm not. And I don't care."

He stared at her, like he had never seen anything like her before. "What?"

"I don't care that you're a werewolf. It doesn't matter. I won't judge you. You're my friend, and I want to keep it that way. I think it's wrong that the majority of the wizarding community is prejudiced against you, that it's nearly impossible for you to get a decent job because they think you're a murderous beast. But you're not. You're a human. And I think you should be treated with respect."

He was silent for a moment. "Thank you," he said finally, his voice barely above a whisper.

She gave him a warm smile. "So we're still friends, right? You'll keep on talking to me?"

He returned her smile. "Yes. Sorry I ignored you earlier, I just…I thought that you wouldn't want anything to do with me."

"Well, don't worry. You're very nice, and I like you. And sorry about Jared…he's an idiot. He's actually my ex. He wanted to get back together, but…I've never really liked him." She paused, then asked cautiously, "When were you bitten?"

He looked pained. "When I was a little boy. My father offended a werewolf named Fenrir Greyback—"

"I've heard of him," she interrupted, surprised. "He's that creep that bites kids on purpose, right?"

"Yeah," Remus said. "I've been taking a potion to control it, just in case you were wondering. Wolfsbane. It lets me keep my human mind. Tastes disgusting, but it's obviously dead useful."

She nodded in agreement. They fell into a comfortable silence that made it clear that the werewolf conversation was over.

He looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, "So are you ready to pick up Harry tomorrow night?"

She looked at him, startled. "It's tomorrow night?"

"Yes," he said, smiling slightly. "You delivered the letter, I hope?"

"Yeah," she said, secretly relieved that she hadn't put it off any longer. "I dropped by the house after work today and dropped it through their letter slot. I just hope they fall for it."

"They will," Remus said, and Tonks couldn't help but feel proud of his confidence in her. "That was a clever idea, Nymphadora. I'm sure that Dumbledore will be impressed."

"Thanks," she said shyly. There was another moment of silence before she got off the bed. "Well, I think I'll head back downstairs."

He got up too. "Me too. See how Sirius is doing…make sure he isn't having an after dinner drink, like he usually enjoys doing. It's not too healthy for him, though…"

And together, they headed back down into the kitchen, both feeling private satisfaction that they had sorted out the problem and feeling happy that they had remained friends.

**A/N I didn't plan on having this chapter out so soon, and it may seem a little rushed, so I apologize. I'm sure that I made another careless error in here, so feel free to point that out to me. Review! Please!!**


	10. Mission Prepping

Sorry that it's been such a long time, but I've been getting busy. I will try to update as much as I can in the future, but I'm very sorry if I can't. And for all of you that are wondering, I am planning to take this right on through to DH—which will make it about a million chapters long—but I still want to fill in the gaps that the 7th book left us with. Here's the next chapter!

Chapter 10

Tonks awoke slowly the next morning, and wondered why her stomach was fluttering nervously. She then remembered that they were going to go retrieve Harry that very evening, and they still didn't know if her letter would work. Sighing, she rolled out of bed and headed to the bathroom to get ready for work. Not ready to face Moody this early in the morning, she took her time. About forty-five minutes later, she headed to the Ministry.

She had just settled down in her cubicle when she heard Moody's wooden leg. Turning around in her chair, she saw him stop at the entrance of her office.

"Remember to come to the place for the thing with the person tonight," he said mysteriously. Tonks stared at him for a moment in confusion, and then realized what he was talking about and grinned.

"Now, would I forget that, Moody?" she asked him. He narrowed his eyes at her doubtfully and clunked away, mumbling to himself. Tonks rolled her eyes. Mad-Eye was always a bit …well, for lack of a better word, _moody_ when he was under stress. She knew that everyone in the Order was worrying about tonight—there were so many things that could go wrong. Trying not to think about it, she settled back into her chair and delved into the huge mountain of paperwork on her desk.

Two hours passed at a snail's pace while she kept on working feverishly, determined not to take a break. She knew that if she stopped, she would never get started again. Just as she reached about halfway through the stack, she heard footsteps behind her. Expecting Mad-Eye to be back to remind her about the mission, she was surprised when she turned around to face Jared.

"Hey, Nymphie," he said casually as he strolled into her office. She stared at him, unable to form a coherent sentence due to the anger rising uncontrollably and unexpectedly within her.

"What—why—what are you doing here?" she spluttered.

"I just thought I'd drop by and say hi, man," he said, flashing her a grin. She snatched her wand from her desk and raised it to his chest, her hand shaking.

"I—you—after how you acted yesterday, you expect that I'll just let you waltz right back in here to say—to say—_hi_?" she shrieked. Jared looked at her, clearly frightened.

"Now Nymphie—don't you think that we're overreacting a bit--?"

"Overreacting?" she hissed. "_Overreacting?" _

"Well, yeah, I mean, I don't know what I did to make you so upset, but—"

"Leave," Tonks said, looking him straight in the eye.

"But I—what?"

"Leave or I'll hex your balls off!" Tonks yelled, jabbing his chest with his wand before pointing it threateningly lower. Jared's eyes widened when he realized that she was not joking.

"Okay, okay!" he said hastily, backing away. He turned around and started to leave, but not before calling back to her one more time. "Have fun playing with your filthy werewolf boyfriend…careful, I heard that they're vicious in bed…"

That was the final straw. Tonks immediately sent the strongest Stinging Hex she could muster his way, and felt a grim satisfaction as it hit his bottom and he sped away, howling in pain. She tossed her wand carelessly on the desk and collapsed back into her chair, even though she knew that if she tried to work on the paperwork now, it would be an entirely fruitless attempt.

She wondered if she had perhaps overreacted a bit. But then she thought about Jared's last comment to her and immediately knew that she hadn't. She didn't know why she was touchy when it came to him insulting Remus, but she thought that it may have been the talk that they had had the night before. The thought that people like Jared hated Remus for being something that he couldn't control made her so angry. People just didn't take the time to get to know Remus, and they think that they know him, think that he's just a bloodthirsty monster that doesn't deserve to be a part of the wizarding world. Tonks angrily stabbed her messy stack of finished paperwork with her wand, and her aggression immediately turned to regret as she saw that she had burned a large hole right through the middle of the stack with her wand.

"No!" she howled. Cautiously passing her wand over the singed hole and muttering a spell, she waited for the whole stack to burst into flames. When it didn't, she saw, to her immense surprise, that the hole had been mended, and that her work hadn't been for nothing. Sighing with relief, she got to work.

The rest of the day passed slowly, and when she looked up at the clock, expecting it to say five o'clock, she was distraught when she found out that it was only quarter to four. "Bugger!" she muttered, frustrated. It was getting harder and harder to concentrate on her paperwork, so she decided to put some music on.

Ever since she was a little girl, Tonks had been taken with music. When she was very little, she loved when her parents played her classical music. She would dance around her living room to the strains of Mozart, and her dad would laugh as her mother insisted that he put some wizarding music on. As she grew older, she grew drawn to rock and punk, wizarding and Muggle alike. Her room used to be covered with posters of her favorite bands, and now her cubicle was, too.

Tonks quickly cast a silencing charm on her cubicle, as she she knew from experience that her neighboring Aurors didn't much appreciate it when she blasted her music. They said it distracted them. For Tonks, it was the opposite. Music helped her concentrate. Usually.

She pulled open a drawer and started fingering through her CDs, wondering which one to put on. Deciding finally on some Muggle punk, she pulled out a Sex Pistols CD. Popping it into the CD player that her father had given her (he was always delighted to give her Muggle gifts, even if he did appreciate magic, having gone to Hogwarts), she cranked the volume up as the opening beat of _Holidays in the Sun_ started.

She managed to get a good chunk of her paperwork done until the song _Anarchy in the U.K. _came on. She had never been able to resist singing along, and the idea of resisting did not appeal to her right now.

She grabbed her wand and started screeching into it as loudly as she could—although she had never been much of a singer, she always loved to sing, even if it was just for fun.

"I am an anti-christ, I am an anarchist—" she snarled along with the music. Suddenly, she felt a hand close on her shoulder, and she screamed loudly and jumped around. She was immediately relieved to see that it was only Remus. She quickly turned off the music.

"Wotcher," she said, curious as to why he was here for the second time in a week, and she could help but wonder if it had anything to do with her.

"Hi there," he said, grinning. "Moody had called me here to help with some things before tonight, and he decided to call it a day and round up everyone to go over the plan one more time. He sent me down here to tell you that we are going to head over to headquarters, and that you should come along."

"Um, okay…" she said, now mortified at how he had seen her. "Just so you know, if Moody asks, I was working all day and decided to pop some music in, and I finished most of my paperwork but I love that song and I just—"

"It's okay," he said, laughing, cutting off her rambling. "Though I must say, it quite surprised me when I first walked in. It was silent out in the corridor, but when I entered your cubicle—"

"Yeah, well, I usually put silencing charms on my cubicle when I do this. My neighbors don't appreciate my music as much as I do." He smiled at her.

"Do you like listening to music?"

"Oh yeah, loads," she said enthusiastically, all embarrassment forgotten. "I adore the Weird Sisters, but I also really like Muggle stuff, too. That band that I was—er—singing along to was called the Sex Pistols. They're one of my favorite Muggle bands. My most favorite Muggle band is the Clash." She gestured up to a large London Calling poster on the wall. "Do you listen to anything?"

"Me?" he asked, seemingly taken-aback by the question. "Oh…well, not really, I must admit. I—"

He was immediately cut off by the gravelly voice of Moody, who, it seemed, had become suspicious about Remus' prolonged absence and decided to come investigate. "I sent you down here to let her know it was time to go, Lupin, not to chat," he growled.

Remus closed his eyes in exasperation for a moment, and Tonks fought a giggle. He opened his eyes again, and winking at her, said, "I apologize, Moody. I shall slip her a note next time, lest I feel the urge to start a real conversation."

"Making fun of me's not going to win you points, Lupin," Moody said, glancing at his watch. "Come on, let's get back to headquarters."

The three of them started to head out of the Ministry. "What about Kingsley?" Tonks asked, craning her head around, looking for the tall wizard.

"Went home early," Moody grunted.

"Why did he get to go home early?" Tonks asked, knowing that she sounded very whiny.

"Because he's a hard-working Auror that gets all of his work done on time, that's why!" Moody snapped, sounding annoyed, but Tonks thought that she could see the starts of a smile on his features.

"Oh, Nymphadora was working very hard when I went in there," Remus said seriously. "Quiet as anything." Tonks immediately covered her mouth to hide a snigger.

"She gets her work done when she isn't playing that damn music of hers," Moody muttered. Tonks and Remus snorted at the same time, then turned and grinned at each other, and if Moody noticed anything, he didn't mention it.

They reached Grimmauld Place a few minutes later and entered the kitchen to see a bushy haired young girl sitting at the table with Ginny.

"Oh, hello, I didn't expect you to come this early!" Molly said from her chair a few seats down from the girls. "Hermione arrived just half an hour ago."

"Hello, Hermione, how are you?" Remus said kindly, and it sounded to Tonks that he knew her already.

"Oh, hello, Professor, I'm great, thanks," said Hermione, beaming. It occurred to Tonks suddenly that she might've been one of Remus' former students.

"I was thinking that I'll make some dinner while you are picking Harry up—he'll want to eat soon, I'm sure—seeing as those Muggles starve him—" Molly said, more to herself than anyone else.

"Hermione, this is Nymphadora Tonks," Remus said, gesturing to Tonks. "This is Hermione Granger. I had her as a student when she was in her third year. One of the brightest witches I have ever known."

Hermione beamed again as she waved at Tonks. "Hello, Nymphadora," she said. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Oh—you can just call me Tonks," she replied with a pained smile. "Nice to meet you too."

Ginny tapped Hermione on the shoulder and they started talking again. Molly was still muttering to herself, as was Moody. Remus pulled a chair out for Tonks, and sat down himself as she took a seat.

"So, are you ready for the mission?" Remus said casually.

"I think so," Tonks said hesitantly, as she still felt a little scared thinking about it.

"It's okay to be nervous," Remus said kindly as though he had read her mind. "But it will go fine, don't worry."

Over the next half hour, they made small talk as majority of the Order filed into the small kitchen. They caught sight of a sour looking Sirius, who left almost as soon as he had come, clutching a bottle of liquor. Remus sighed.

"He really wants to go get Harry," he said. "That's out of the question, of course. I just wish I could find a way to stop him drinking."

"Flush it all down the toilet?" Tonks offered helpfully. Remus grinned guiltily.

"Erm…I did that, actually, and felt hugely relieved to have the deed over and done with…only to have Mundungus show up with a whole case of stolen firewhiskey. Which, of course, ruined everything."

Tonks laughed and was about to reply when Moody called for silence.

"Okay, we all know the plan," he growled. "We'll all have to fly to the Muggle's house, as Harry can't Apparate, and many of us haven't seen the house, so we can't Apparate there. We'll pick Harry up, and use the brooms to come back. Remus says that Harry's a good flier, and he better be right."

"He's very good," Remus said, though Tonks noticed that he looked a little put-off by Moody's comment.

"That's settled, then. Everybody outside."

Remus turned around and gave Tonks a reassuring smile, which, for some reason, only made the butterflies in her stomach worse. She followed everyone out the door, ready for her very first Order mission.

**A/N I know, I know, I told everyone that they would be picking Harry up in this chapter. Sorry. Next chapter, I promise, I won't be able to avoid it****J**** Please review the chapter! I hope I got most of the details right, and if I didn't, please let me know and I will try to fix them! Otherwise, sorry if there are any mistakes. Reviews will be greatly appreciated…they motivate me to write sooner!!**


	11. The Guard for Harry Potter

Thanks for all of the reviews! Before I get started, I just want to say that I'm sorry I messed up the whole Hermione thing. I figured that since it's not extremely important to the plotline, I'll just leave it for now, but if I get a chance later I will attempt to fix it. I just wanted to say thanks for putting up with all of my stupid errors. And I know that most of the dialogue is not accurate in this chapter, but I don't have the books with me right now, so please just go along with itJ Anyways, I'll stop rambling, and here's the chapter!

Disclaimer: Since this chapter is similar to the book a bit, I figured that I'd say that I don't own anything. If I did...well, that's another story.

Chapter 11

The members filed out of Grimmauld Place silently, anticipating what was ahead. They soon reached the dark, quiet square, where nine brooms were awaiting them on the doorstep.

"Okay, we're going to leave in pairs, just so if there is anyone watching, it'll be less noticeable," Moody whispered. "Emmeline and Hestia will be first, then Dedalus and Sturgis, Kingsley and Elphias, then Lupin and Tonks. I'll bring up the rear. Can everybody handle that?" Everyone nodded their heads. Tonks glanced at Remus, who looked rather calm. She, on the other hand, felt unbelievably queasy.

"Emmeline, Hestia, you know where to go?" They nodded, then picked up their brooms. "Okay, go ahead." The two witches grasped their broomsticks and mounted them, kicked off and were soon out of sight. Moody watched them go.

"We'll just wait a few minutes…we're ahead of schedule, we can afford to space ourselves out a bit." Minutes passed, broken only by the sound of nervous breathing and the occasional sigh. Finally, Remus, Tonks and Mad-Eye were the only ones left.

"Okay, Lupin, Tonks, you can go. I'll be about five minutes behind you. If one of you is killed, keep going. Don't stop for anything."

"No one's going to die," Remus said exasperatedly to Moody, though he was starting to look a bit uneasy.

"Just making sure you know what to do, Lupin," Mad-Eye growled. "Now go. Quickly."

Remus gave Tonks a tight-lipped smile that she tried her hardest to return, then mounted his broom. She got onto her own broom and together they took off. Tonks took the lead, positive that she knew where she was going. She looked behind her to see Remus not two feet away from her, obviously relying on her to lead the way. Her stomach did a strange flip again, but she ignored it and kept on flying. She had been flying for only a few minutes when suddenly she shot into a cloud.

"Damn!" she exclaimed as a chilly wet blanket of white enveloped her. She wasn't sure how she hadn't seen it, but she hadn't been really paying attention to where she was going, either, she just knew that she had to go straight. But now she had no idea where she was heading.

Deciding that it was best to escape the cloud first, she shot off in a random direction, praying that it was the right one. After only about a minute, she flew into clear air. Sighing with relief, she looked behind her, hoping that Remus hadn't made the same mistake that she had. Those hopes were shattered when she saw him come flying out of the cloud, shivering and rather damp.

"Sorry," Tonks said sheepishly as he came to a halt in midair next to her.

"It's not your fault, I wasn't really paying attention," he said. "But I'm afraid that I've lost my sense of direction. Do you know where we were headed?"

"Um…well…" Tonks said feebly. "That way?" She pointed a finger in a direction that she desperately hoped was the way to the Dursleys'.

"Oh," said Remus, looking crestfallen. "We'll just have to--"

"Hey, look!" Tonks said excitedly, cutting him off. "I see somebody! We must've caught up to someone." Urging her broom forward, she started flying towards the dark shape. Remus flew next to her. They had been flying for only about half a minute when Remus said something. Not able to hear him over the wind rushing in her ears, she motioned for him to stop.

"What did you say?" she asked.

"It looks like whoever it is, they're flying towards us," he said.

"But—I was sure that—oh, crap," she muttered. "It's probably Mad-Eye."

Remus bit his lip. "He'll kill us."

"Not if we leave before he can get to us."

"Tonks, he's going to be here in less than a minute."

"So what, you're just saying that we should stay and face the music?" Tonks asked, now starting to panic slightly.

"Er…well, I think that he'll be even more angry if we try to run away from him."

"You're probably right," she said grudgingly. "But maybe he won't be as angry as we think he'll be. I mean, we're not that late, or lost, are we?" She looked at Remus, whose face had suddenly gone blank. "Are we?" She realized that Remus, who was no longer listening to her, was staring at something just beyond her left shoulder. She turned slowly in mid-air, dreading what it was.

"What in Merlin's name are you two _doing_?" Moody growled. "You were supposed to arrive at the Muggles' house about…three minutes ago!"

"But we left early!" Tonks cried, exasperated by Moody's constant need of punctuality.

"Yes, but you wasted a considerable amount of time floating here, doing nothing! What, may I ask, were you two doing?"

"We…erm…we got lost in a cloud, Mad-Eye," Remus said.

"Well, that was stupid of you," Moody snapped. Tonks rolled her eyes. "I saw that, missy! It's not my fault that you two idiots got lost!"

"Calm down, Mad-Eye, you're just frustrated because we're on an important mission," Remus said soothingly.

"You're damn right, it's important!" Mad-Eye nearly shouted, then seemed to calm down. "Here's what we'll do. I know where we're going. You two just follow me, and don't go anywhere else. Do you think you can handle that?"

Remus and Tonks nodded feebly, then took off after Mad-Eye's retreating form. Tonks, who had been about to give him the finger, remembered his magical eye and settled for sticking her tongue out instead. She heard Remus laugh, and she grinned.

After only about two minutes, they saw Moody signal them to land. They dove down in a steep descent and landed in what appeared to be an impeccably kept backyard. The rest of the Order members were waiting, partially obscured by bushes.

"We were getting worried," Kingsley said quietly. "We were about to go back and look for you."

"We were only three bloody minutes late!" Tonks cried. "What is _with _you people and time?"

Moody immediately shushed her. "Shut up, girl! There could be people listening!" He glanced around them as if expecting a Death Eater to jump out of the rhododendron bush. "Now let's advance inside _quietly_. We're not positive that the Muggles are gone, but their…er…car, is it? Their _car _is gone. But we should be careful no matter what. _Constant vigilance!_" He glanced at Remus and Tonks as he said the last bit.

"It was a flipping _cloud_…" Tonks grumbled under her breath, but followed her colleagues into the house. They entered the back door into an uncannily clean kitchen. The only thing messy about the kitchen was that there were dirty (but only slightly) dishes left on the table. As Tonks made her way past the table, she felt her hip brush something and realized a second too late that one of the plates had been too close to the end of the table. She winced as the plate crashed to the floor loudly and smashed into tiny pieces. She felt a flush creep up her neck as many of the Order members stopped and turned around. Moody shot her a look that would've killed her if looks were capable of murder. "Sorry," she mouthed. Moody, still looking as if he wanted to wring her neck, slowly turned around and kept walking towards the front of the house. Tonks quickly bent down and repaired the dish with her wand, then set it gently and carefully back onto the table, well away from the edge. She looked up to see that almost everyone had moved on into the hallway, except for Remus.

"Coming?" he whispered. She nodded, and followed him into the hallway of the Muggle house. They reached the foot of the stairs.

"He heard you," Moody whispered harshly as they heard light footsteps upstairs.

"Well, he has to know we're here in order for us to take him away, right?" Tonks said exasperatedly. "And it looks as if the Muggles are gone."

"Shut up," Moody growled. "Lupin, get up here. If it is Harry, it'd be best if he saw a familiar face."

_So Harry must've been one of his students too, _Tonks mused as Remus pushed his way gently up to the front of the group congregated at the foot of the staircase. She immediately snapped to attention as the shadow of a person appeared on the landing above them, looking hesitant.

"It's all right, Harry. We've come to take you away," Remus said soothingly.

"P—professor Lupin?" the boy stuttered. "Is that you?"

Tonks suddenly realized that nobody could see anything in the darkness that was surrounding them. "Why are we all standing in the dark?" she said, raising her wand. "_Lumos._" Her wand tip suddenly flared with light, illuminating everyone in the entryway, and the teenager on the stairs.

Harry Potter looked exactly as she had imagined. She had seen pictures of James, and a few of a younger Harry, but he looked almost identical to the pictures. He had thick, messy black hair, striking green eyes, and the lightning scar on his forehead. He was on the tall side and was rather thin, as if he didn't eat too often.

"Oooh, he looks just like I thought he would! Wotcher, Harry!" Tonks exclaimed excitedly, giving him her trademark greeting.

She heard Kingsley speak in front of her. "Yeah, I see what you mean, Remus. He looks exactly like James."

"Except for the eyes. Lily's eyes," Elphias said softly. Harry stared back at all of them, seeming apprehensive, which was perfectly understandable, as a bunch of witches and wizards had suddenly appeared in his house.

"Are you quite sure it's him, Lupin?" she heard Moody growl. She rolled her eyes. It was just like Moody to bring up a security question before even saying hello. "It'd be a nice lookout if we bring back some Death Eater impersonating him. We ought to ask him something only the real Potter would know. Unless anyone brought any Veritaserum?" Tonks rolled her eyes again.

"Harry, what form does your Patronus take?" Remus asked hurriedly. Tonks had the feeling that he didn't want Moody forcing any truth potion upon the boy.

"A stag."

"That's him, Mad-Eye," Remus said, sounding relieved. Harry made his way down the stairs. Eager to get a closer look, Tonks pushed her way to the front until she was wedged between Remus and Mad-Eye. She noticed that Harry had stuck his wand into his back pocket. She winced. Moody would not like that. And she was right.

"Don't put your wand there, boy!" Moody roared alarmingly. "What if it ignited? Better wizards than you have lost buttocks, you know!"

Tonks giggled, intrigued. "Who d'you know who's lost a buttock?" she asked. She heard Remus stifle a snort next to her.

"Never you mind," Moody snapped. "Just keep your wand out of your back pocket!" He started to make his way towards the kitchen, grumbling about elementary wand safety. Tonks rolled her eyes. "I saw that!" Moody said. Tonks fought the urge to roll them again.

She felt Remus shift next to her as he shook hands with Harry, and suddenly realized how close they were. Flushing, she stepped away and vacated Moody's abandoned spot. As the group made their way to the kitchen, she followed, wondering why she had felt so embarrassed. She had been standing just as close to Moody, hadn't she? She shuddered. She really didn't want to think about that.

They soon reached the immaculate kitchen, and Kingsley turned on the lights as the rest of them perched upon the counter top and in chairs. Harry took a seat. Remus started introducing everyone. "Harry, this is Hestia, Dedalus, Kingsley...this is Mad-Eye Moody...Elphias, Sturgis, Emmeline...and this is Nymphadora--"

Tonks cut him off before he could finish. "It's Tonks, Remus," she said, though for some reason she couldn't feel annoyed.

"Nymphadora Tonks, who prefers to be known as her surname only," Remus finished.

"So would you if your fool of a mother named you Nymphadora," Tonks muttered under her breath.

Harry looked nervously at all the wizards and witches gathered in his kitchen. "I'm…er…you're really lucky the Dursleys are out," Harry muttered.

"Lucky, ha! It was me that lured them out of the way. Sent a letter by Muggle post telling them they'd been short-listed for the All-England Best-Kept Suburban Lawn Competition. They're heading off to the prize-giving right now…or they think they are," Tonks said, feeling proud of her letter. Harry smirked, then turned to Remus.

"We're leaving, aren't we? Soon?" Tonks had the feeling that he was extremely eager to escape the house.

"Almost at once, we're just waiting for the all clear."

"Where are we going? The Burrow?"

"No, not the Burrow," Remus replied, glancing at his watch. "Too obvious. We set up headquarters someplace else, someplace that's nearly impossible to detect."

"What's the Burrow?" Tonks murmured.

"The Weasley's house," Remus answered, checking his watch again nervously.

Harry was looking around awkwardly, trying to avoid all of the stares.

"A surprising number of people volunteered to come and get you," Remus said, smiling.

"The more, the better," said Moody. "We're your guard, Potter."

"We're just waiting for the signal to tell us that it's okay to take off. We've got about ten or fifteen minutes."

Tonks, who was getting rather bored, glanced around the kitchen. "Very clean, aren't they, these Muggles?" she said. "My dad's a Muggle-born and he's a right old slob. I suppose it varies, like it does with wizards?"

"Er—yeah," Harry said, giving her a strange look. "Erm, look—what's going on? I haven't heard from anyone in ages, and what's Vold—"

"Shhhh!" Nearly the entire room shushed him right away. Dedalus Diggle squealed and dropped his violet hat.

"Shut up!" hissed Moody.

"What?" Harry said, looking unnerved.

"We're not discussing anything here, it's much too risky!" Moody said. "Damn it—" his magical eye, Tonks noticed, was pointed at the ceiling—"been sticking ever since that scum wore it…" He popped out his eye.

"Mad-Eye, you do know that's disgusting, don't you?" Tonks said cheerfully as many of the witches and wizards made small sounds of discomfort.

"Grab me a glass of water, would you, Harry?" Moody said, grasping his magical eye. Harry filled a glass full of water and handed it to Moody, who dropped the eye in, where it started to twirl around, observing everyone in the room.

"Cheers. I want three-hundred-and-sixty degrees visibility on the journey back."

"How're we getting—erm—wherever we're going?" Harry asked, glancing nervously at the disembodied eye floating in the water.

"Brooms. Only way. You're too young to Apparate, they'll be watching the Floo Network, and it's more than our life's worth to set up an unauthorized Portkey."

Harry nodded, looking a bit relieved. "Remus says that you're a very good flier," Kingsley said.

"He's excellent. Harry, you'd better go and get packed. We should be ready to go when the signal comes."

"I'll come with you," Tonks said brightly, standing up and nearly knocking over her chair. She was eager to help out.

She followed the teenager back through the hallway and up the staircase, observing the unnaturally clean house with an expression of distaste. "Funny place. It's a bit too clean, d'you know what I mean? It's unnatural." They entered a rather messy room, a room that reminded her of her own home. "Oh, much, much better."

She walked over to a mirror and inspected her reflection. "I don't think that purple works for me," she said. "Makes me look a bit peaky, don't you think?"

"Uh…" Harry looked up from his suitcase, obviously at a loss of what to say.

"Yeah. It does." Tonks screwed up her face and conjured an image of her favorite hair color, bright, bubble-gum pink. A second later, her spiky hair had changed from violet to pink. She looked over to see Harry staring at her.

"How—how did you do that?" he asked, astounded.

"I'm a Metamorphmagus. I can change my appearance at will. I was born this way. Rather nice, actually. Got top marks in Concealment and Disguise during Auror training without any study at all, it was great. Dead clumsy, though. I came this close to failing Stealth and Tracking. I expect you heard me break that plate downstairs? Anyways, Kingsley's an Auror, too. He's higher up than me, though. I only qualified about a year ago."

"You're an Auror?" Harry asked curiously, now tossing some robes into his trunk.

"Yep," she said proudly. She loved her job…minus the paperwork.

"Can…can you learn to be a Metamorphmagus?"

"Heh…bet you wouldn't mind hiding that scar sometimes, eh?" She glanced at the lightning bolt on his forehead and he unconsciously flattened his hair. "Sorry, you'll have to learn the hard way. Metamorphmagi are really rare. They're born. But we should be packing, Harry."

"Oh—right. Sorry." They resumed their packing, and within a few minutes, were finally done, with no help from Tonks' halfhearted house-hold like spells (she had never been much good with them). She had gotten distracted when she noticed his Firebolt, but had recovered from the envy soon enough. She levitated his trunk and owl cage downstairs.

They made their way back to the kitchen to find everyone almost ready to go. Moody had replaced his eye, much to everyone's relief, Remus was sealing a letter to the Muggles, and everyone else was having a look around the kitchen.

"Excellent. We've got about a minute, I believe, we should get out into the garden. Harry, I've left a letter to your relatives telling them not to worry—"

"They won't."

"That you're safe—"

"That'll just depress them."

"And that you'll see them next summer," Remus finished, smiling.

"Do I have to?"

Moody beckoned Harry over and quickly Disillusioned him. They then made their way out the back door and back into the garden. Moody hurriedly explained the plan and the flying formation, letting Harry know that if the guard was killed, the backup guard would be waiting to take over.

"No one's going to die," Kingsley said reassuringly at the look of apprehension on the boy's face.

"Mount your brooms, that's the first signal!" Remus announced suddenly, pointing into the sky, where a shower of red wand sparks were sparkling. Everyone mounted their brooms. Suddenly, green sparks exploded above them.

"That's the second signal, let's go!"

They kicked off into the night, and Tonks felt satisfied that she had nearly completed her first mission.

**A/N Okay, personally, I'm not happy with this chapter at all, it's too much like the book (sorry) and rather boring. But I have writer's block and I am posting this in the hopes that by writing, I'll get rid of it. So please, review and let me know what you think, I'm sorry that it's not very good, but I will try to make the next one much better. Please review!**


	12. Girl Talk

I'm so, so sorry that I took so long to update. It took me a while to write this chapter, and I was rather busy so it took a while to finisha and post. So I'm sorry about that. Thank you once again for all of the great reviews! Thank you also for the suggestions from PiercingBlue and SeraphineBlack, I will be using both of those! And don't worry, Remus and Tonks' relationship will develop more very soon, I just prefer to take it a bit slow. Oh, and I know that Tonks does take part in the after-dinner conversation about Voldemort, but it's just taken so long to get this chapter out, and I really don't have the patience to go along exactly with the book. So I'm going to alter that a bit. Sorry about that, but I just don't think I could stand writing from the book, it's so...tedious! Okay, I'll stop with the super-long, super annoying intros. On with the story.

Chapter 12 

As they flew through the cold air, Tonks couldn't help but wonder what would happen next. She was flying ahead of Harry, and had his trunk strapped on her broom. Remus was below them, and Mad-Eye was behind. Confident that she knew exactly where she was going this time, Tonks took more time to enjoy the ride. It was bitterly cold, but it was rather refreshing. She couldn't remember the last time she had taken a broom for a fun ride. She was a decent flyer, and enjoyed riding on her broom.

She heard Mad-Eye shout something, and saw everybody else swerving left. She did the same and felt the trunk swing and shudder underneath her. She privately hoped that it wouldn't fall. She hoped even more that it wouldn't fall and hit Remus on the head, who was now flying nearly exactly under her. She imagined that that would make a good conversation starter, especially with Sirius.

They rose higher into the sky, and Tonks started to shiver, even though she had her cloak on. She wished she had brought her heavier one.

She heard Moody shout directions every now and then. She didn't pay much attention until she heard him shout, "Bear southeast and keep climbing, there's some low cloud ahead we can lose ourselves in!"

She couldn't tell if he was serious or if he was mocking her and Remus, but then she saw that he was rising toward the clouds.

"We're not going through clouds! We'll get soaked, Mad-Eye!" she bellowed. She had had enough of clouds for the evening.

He seemed to hear her, because he grudgingly swooped back down to her level. She shook her head.

She soon became bored. They had been flying for at least forty-five minutes, and she was starving. She thought longingly of the feast Molly probably had prepared for them for when they got back. She thought even more longingly of her warm, dry bed.

She became more and more impatient with each direction that Mad-Eye shouted, altering their course. Finally, she had had enough.

"We ought to double back for a bit, just to make sure we're not being followed!" she heard Moody shout.

"ARE YOU MAD, MAD-EYE?" she screamed, turning her head around to look at Mad-Eye in disbelief. "We're all frozen to our brooms! If we keep going off course we're not going to get there until next week! We're nearly there now!" It turned out that she was right. She heard Remus yell.

"Time to start the descent! Follow Tonks, Harry!"

She pushed her broom into a steep dive, and saw everyone else doing the same out of the corner of her eye. Urging her broom forward in her desperation to reach warm, dry ground, she was soon only a few meters away from landing.

"Here we go!" she shouted back to Harry, then touched down on the grass in the middle of Grimmauld Square. She heard soft thumps behind her and knew that the others had landed. Shivering, she walked over to stand by Remus while Moody handed Harry a slip of parchment (she assumed that it was the headquarters' address).

Moody then used a strange little device to put out all the lights in the square. The square was now lit only by the moon and a few windows. It was silent.

She shivered again, thinking longingly of the warm interior of Grimmauld Place. She glanced over at Remus, and with a pang, realized that he didn't even have a cloak. All that he was wearing were his thin, shabby robes. She instantly regretted wishing for her heavy winter cloak earlier.

She saw Harry's eyes widen and guessed that he had noticed the house appear. They made their way into the house.

They were greeted instantly by Molly, who pulled Harry into a crushing hug and whispered something into his ear. She then turned to the guard. "He's just arrived, the meeting's started…"

Tonks followed the rest of the witches and wizards into the meeting room, where the rest of the Order was congregated. She and Remus sat on either side of Sirius, who grinned rather drunkenly at them.

"How'd it go?" he whispered. But before either of them had the chance to answer, Dumbledore, who had been seated on the opposite side of the room, rose.

"I would like to start off by congratulating the advance guard on a job well done," he said. Everyone applauded politely. "Harry Potter is safe for the time being. I would also like to congratulate Nymphadora Tonks for completing her first Order assignment."

Tonks could feel herself blush as everyone beamed at her and clapped loudly. "She's my cousin, you know!" Sirius pointed out to an exasperated looking Remus. "She's my cousin!" Tonks caught a whiff of alcohol on his breath.

"We now need to figure out how we are to get the children to school. It may seem a while away right now, but the weeks will pass quickly, and we need to come up with a safe and effective plan. I think that it would be best for at least two of you to escort them to King's Cross, preferably Aurors. Nymphadora, Alastor, would you be interested?"

"Yes," they both answered. Dumbledore nodded, looking satisfied. "That's settled, then. Now, I wanted to go over…"

Tonks found that Dumbledore's voice was fading away gradually. She tried her hardest to pay attention, but just couldn't do it. She was exhausted, and her stomach was growling so loudly that she was surprised that no one could hear it. She wondered what was for dinner…

Her stomach gave a particularly loud grumble, and she heard Dumbledore pause slightly before carrying on. Several of the witches and wizards nearby turned to stare at her, and she flushed. She sank down into her seat and wished the meeting would end. As if granting her wishes, she heard Dumbledore finish by saying, "Thank you for your attention and hard work. I will let you know when the next meeting is as soon as possible."

There was a scraping of chairs as the wizards and witches in the room rose from their seats and started chatting. Sirius stood up and rubbed his eyes.

"Urgh, I have a horrible headache."

"That's what you get for trying to drown yourself in firewhiskey," Remus said sternly. "Now go upstairs and take some of those pills. You don't want your godson to see you like this, do you?"

Sirius mumbled something incomprehensible and staggered from the room.

"What pills?" Tonks asked Remus, who was watching his friend with a slight frown on his face.

"Well, they're meant to treat hangovers, but for some reason, when he takes them, they manage to make him a bit more sober. Miracle, really." Tonks snorted. "Let's go to the dining room, shall we? Molly's prepared some food."

Tonks nodded, and they both headed for the door. They were greeted by Snape, who had been trying to walk through the doorway at the same time. Both parties stopped, not wanting to come any closer to each other than was necessary. Snape stepped back and sneered. "Ladies first," he said, gesturing to Tonks. She glared at him then stepped through the door. When Remus made to follow her, Snape threw an arm out to block him. "I said ladies first, not filthy animals," he snarled. Remus flushed as Snape strode out of the room. Tonks stared after him, still amazed after many years at how nasty he could be. She turned back towards Remus, who was watching his old schoolmate leave with an odd expression on his face.

"Come on, Remus, don't listen to him," she said, grabbing his arm and pulling him out of the room, stepping over a pile of Dungbombs, which she guessed had been left by Ginny, whom she had told to throw things at doors to see if an Imperturbable Charm had been placed upon them. "Let's go to dinner."

He nodded wordlessly then started to follow her. They passed Molly as she was coming down the stairs, and she stopped them. "Could you two please help me lock up the door real quick, after everyone leaves? I would do it myself, but…well, there are a lot of locks, and…"

"Sure, Molly," Remus said suddenly, speaking again. They followed the flood of people leaving Grimmauld Place and shut the door after them. As they started locking up, they heard the children come downstairs. They finished locking up, and then started down the hall to dinner. They heard Mrs. Weasley whisper something to Harry. Suddenly, Tonks felt her leg connect with something…something familiar. She realized as she fell that it was the troll's leg.

There was a loud crash as she and the odd umbrella stand fell to the floor. She heard Mrs. Black start screaming, and she winced.

"Tonks!" Mollly cried, hurrying over to Mrs. Black's portrait as Remus quickly helped Tonks off the floor. She bent over and attempted to lift the heavy umbrella stand as Remus now rushed over to help Molly control Sirius' mum. She caught a sight of Harry, who was rather startled, looking as she imagined she had looked when she had first encountered Mrs. Black.

Remus and Molly tugged on the curtains as hard as possible, but they would not close, and Mrs. Black became more hysterical. "_Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers, you blood traitors, werewolves—"_

Molly gave up and ran down the hallway, stunning the other portraits who had started screaming.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" Tonks yelled as she struggled to lift the umbrella stand that had caused her so much grief. Remus, apparently giving up on Mrs. Black too, ran over and helped her lift the leg. She gave him a grateful smile, which he returned, before they heard somebody thunder down the stairs.

"Shut up, you horrible old hag, shut UP!" Sirius roared, grabbing one of the curtains. Remus, closing his eyes for a moment in exasperation, ran over and grabbed the other one once again. Sirius' mum's eyes suddenly popped, and she started screaming louder than ever.

"YOOOU! Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!"

"I said—shut—UP!" Sirius roared, and on the count of three, he and Remus managed to finally pull the curtains shut. They leaned against the wall, panting.

"Sorry," Tonks said again, meekly this time. Molly just gave her a pained smile and headed off to the kitchen. Remus came over to stand by her as Sirius started explaining who the annoying old woman in the portrait was to Harry.

"Looks like those pills worked, huh?" he murmured to Tonks, who nodded. Sirius, indeed, did look more sober. His eyes were bright now as he talked animatedly to his godson. They all started down to the kitchen, and Remus took a seat as Tonks headed over to Bill to help him clean up some plans from the meeting.

"Journey all right, Harry?" Bill called to the teenager, who nodded and waved. "Mad-Eye didn't make you come via Greenland, then?"

"He tried," Tonks said, rolling her eyes. As she moved to pick up a roll of parchment, her hand knocked into a candle and fell over, setting all of the paperwork alight. "Oh, _no_—sorry—"

"Here, dear," Molly said tiredly, rushing over and restoring the parchment quickly.

"Thanks—sorry—what can I do, Molly?"

"Er--no, it's alright, Tonks, you have a rest too, you've done enough today--"

"No, I want to help!" Tonks insisted, jumping up from her chair and knocking it over in her eagerness to please the older woman. She heard Sirius snigger, and when she turned to glare at him, she noticed that Remus was already giving him a look. She smiled secretly, then bounded over to help Molly.

Eventually, everyone got settled and sat down for dinner. Sirius and Remus sat on the opposite side of the table from Tonks, and Ginny and Hermione sat on either side of her. Tonks had taken to Hermione also, and enjoyed both girls' company. She was currently doing different morphed noses for them, and it appeared that their favorite was the pig nose.

Across the table, Sirius and Harry were catching up. Remus was eating his chicken thoughtfully. Tonks morphed back into her normal, if you could call it normal, look. "Whatcha thinking about, Remus?" she asked, knowing that she wasn't going to get a straight answer.

"Nothing..." he said slowly, still chewing thoughtfully. Suddenly, he set down his fork. "Do you have any siblings, Tonks?"

Taken aback by the question, it took her a minute to respond. Switching seats with Ginny so that her young friend could talk to Hermione while she talked to Remus, she shook her head. "No. Why?"

"Just wondering..." he said, and started up his eating again with almost a sad look on his face. Tonks noticed that Sirius was looking at him with a concerned expression on his features.

"What--?" she started to ask, until she saw Sirius shake his head very slightly. She changed track immediately as Remus looked up, expecting her to finish. "What--what are you doing tomorrow?"

"Oh...work, for the Order, I expect," he said vaguely. "May have to go visit someone..."

"Visit who?"

"Oh, just an old family friend." This time, she definitely saw a sad look in his eye.

"Remus, what's wrong?" He just shook his head.

"I have to go wash my plate, excuse me..." he got up from the table and headed over to the sink, where Molly had started cleaning the dishes.

"I'll tell you later, okay?" Sirius said in a low voice. Tonks just nodded, confused.

She finished up the rest of her dinner, as did everybody else. The atmosphere of the room was a comfortable, sleepy one. Ginny was sitting on the floor, rolling butterbeer corks to Hermione's cat, Crookshanks. Arthur looked like he was about to fall asleep in his chair. Suddenly, she realized just how tired she was. Yawning, she stretched and nearly tipped over. Blushing, she glanced around to make sure no one had seen, and to her relief, no one had. It was rather annoying being a klutz.

Molly yawned. "Just about time for bed, I think."

"Not yet, Molly," Sirius said, frowning slightly as he pushed his plate away. He turned to glance at Harry. "You know, I'm surprised at you. I thought the first thing you'd do when you got here would be to start asking questions about Voldemort."

"I did!" said Harry loudly. "I asked Ron and Hermione but they said we're not allowed in the Order, so--"

"And they're quiet right," Molly said suddenly. "You're too young." She had sat up in her chair, and Tonks saw an unmistakable look of anger in her eyes. Feeling very drowsy and not up to the wrath of Molly Weasley at all, Tonks stood up quickly.

"I'm tired--Sirius, do you mind if I crash here tonight?" she asked, using her wand to levitate her dishes to the sink. She winced as she heard a crack, but Molly didn't look away from Sirius, and Sirius didn't divert his gaze from Harry.

"Sure. Second bedroom on the left, second floor," Sirius said. Tonks nodded and left the room quickly. As she made her way up to her bedroom for the night, she heard Molly's voice rising along with Sirius'. Immensely glad that she had escaped when she did, finished climbing the stairs quickly, pushed her door open and collapsed on the bed within. Suddenly, she wasn't as tired as she had been. She hadn't brought any of her things to spend the night, so she decided to just sleep in her clothes. As she was deciding what to do to keep her boredom at bay, she heard angry footsteps on the stairs, accompanied by Mrs. Blacks shrieks. The screams stopped abruptly, but the footsteps continued. Nervous that it was Molly or Sirius, Tonks was surprised when she heard the angry mutterings of Ginny Weasley. She sat up straighter on the bed, then slid off and headed to the door. She could handle Ginny.

"Ginny?" she said softly, peeking her head around the door. The redheaded girl stopped abruptly, gave a small wave. Tonks could still see some remaining anger in the younger girl's face. "What's up? You wanna talk?"

"Yeah," Ginny replied, and she headed into the room. Tonks plopped back down onto the bed, and her young companion followed suit. They were quiet for a few moments until Ginny took a sharp, angry breath. "How come I'm not allowed to do _anything_?" she said. "All of my brothers get to hear what's going on, but I can't. I'm only one year younger than Ron!"

"Hermione'll probably tell you everything when she gets up here," Tonks said soothingly. Ginny quieted as she pondered this fact, and then her face brightened considerably.

"Yeah, you're right!" she said, now smiling.

"That's my girl," Tonks said, relieved to have the smiling, cheerful Ginny that she knew so well back.

"Can I still stay here and talk?"

"Sure," said Tonks, glad to have a chance to have a little girl-talk time with Ginny. "So what do you want to talk about?"

"Boys," Ginny said slyly. Tonks laughed.

"Ah, the always present topic of girl discussion...you have any particular boy on your mind?"

"Not really," said Ginny, but her cheeks started to flush and she picked at a loose thread on the blanket.

"Come on, I won't tell, I promise," begged Tonks. Ginny continued to pick, then suddenly looked up, smiling.

"Harry," she said. Tonks squealed and hugged her.

"That's so cute," she said excitedly.

"Yeah, but...he...he doesn't like me," Ginny said, suddenly sniffling. Tonks' eyes widened.

"Oh, no, no, don't cry. Just give him some time, he'll come around," she said kindly. Ginny nodded, then wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Do--do you have a boyfriend, Tonks?" Tonks chuckled.

"Sadly, no. The last one I had was three months ago, and he was a jerk, anyway. I was glad to be rid of him."

"Do you want another boyfriend?" Ginny asked, and Tonks could see the starts of a smile on her features.

"Sure, if you can find me one," she joked. Suddenly, Ginny's face broke into a sneaky grin.

"What about Professor Lupin?"

Tonks nearly fell off the bed. "W--what?" she sputtered. "No! No, why would you say--why would you think that?"

Ginny continued to peer at her suspiciously. "You break a lot of things when you're around him."

"I do that all the time, Ginny," she said exasperately.

"Yeah, but more when he's around. And you blush whenever he says something nice to you."

"I--I don't!" Tonks said indignantly. "I do not like Remus Lupin!"

"Whatever you say," Ginny said, winking. "But honestly, I don't know what you're protesting about. He's really a nice man, and rather handsome too..." she slid off the bed. "And I'm starting to think that he fancies you back." Tonks stared at her, feeling a blush creep up her neck. "Well, good night!" Ginny said cheerfully. "I'm rather tired, so I'm off to bed...see you tomorrow!"

As the young girl left the room, Tonks crawled slowly under the covers, wondering if what the young girl had said was true. She couldn't help that hope that it was.

**A/N Okay, that chapter had basically no point...but I really just wanted to finish it, because I'm pretty sure that I know what I'm going to do for the next chapter. Please review!**


	13. Xandy and Liz

Thank you for all the wonderful reviews, and I'm sorry that the time between the updates is getting longer, but I've been getting a bit busier. Before I start the chapter, I want to ask something. I really want to continue this through Deathly Hallows, but at the rate I'm going, that'll make this story roughly 300 chapters long. I was thinking that I could split it up into a trilogy, one story for each book (the sequel to this would take place in the Half-Blood Prince, and the last one would take place in the Deathly Hallows). I would like to do it, and I was wondering if you guys would be interested in reading the other two stories if I did them. So please drop a review and let me know, if you could! Okay, sorry for the extremely long AN, here's the story.

Chapter 13 

Tonks awoke early the next morning from disturbing dreams that mostly involved her and Remus getting shot by arrows from Ginny, who was dressed like Cupid, diaper and all. Trying not to think about the possible meanings of these, she got up slowly, taking her time. Remembering that she had forgotten clean clothes at her flat, she decided that she would Apparate over later and grab some things. She enjoyed staying at Grimmauld and keeping Sirius company, and was planning to ask if she could spend the night again.

When she made her way down to the cavernous kitchen, the only occupant was her cousin, drinking a cup of black coffee and reading the Daily Prophet. When he heard her enter, he glanced up and his face broke into a grin.

"Hey, cuz," he said. "How'd you sleep? Sweet dreams?"

"I slept good," she said, not ready to elaborate on her dreams. "You? How'd the talk with Harry go last night?"

"The talk was okay," he said, sipping his coffee. "Molly got annoyed after a while. We had a bit of a row."

"Yeah, I heard you guys yelling," Tonks said. "What'd you fight about?"

"Well, she told me that I was thinking that Harry was James, which I wasn't, of course—" he glanced at her, and she nodded quickly. "And we both basically were just yelling at each other about who cared for Harry more. Stupid, really."

Tonks nodded again. "Ginny came up, she was pretty upset. She got over it quickly, though, once I told her that Hermione would probably tell her everything once she got upstairs."

Sirius drained his coffee cup. "So where are you off to today? Don't you have to go to work?"

"Nope, no work today," Tonks said. "Day off. I might just hang around here, if that's alright with you…?"

"That's fine," said Sirius, flipping a page of the paper. "Any extra company around here is nice."

"Okay. I'll just Apparate to my flat later, get some stuff."

"Sounds good."

They sat in comfortable silence for a moment, until Tonks decided to finally bring up what she had meant to ask for a while. "Where's Remus?" she said, trying to sound casual. Apparently, she hadn't sounded casual enough, because Sirius' face broke into a sneaky grin nearly identical to the one that had been on Ginny's features the night before.

"Why are you asking?" he said. She felt herself blush.

"I was just wondering, Sirius. He's always around here, and now he's not. Just curious."

Sirius' grin didn't fade, though he answered her seriously this time. "Probably at his place doing some paperwork. He has to go visit someone today in St. Mungo's, so he'll probably go do that later." Suddenly, his smile faded. "I told you that I'd explain what that whole thing was about at dinner last night, didn't I?"

"What?" said Tonks, but then she remembered Remus' odd questions about siblings. "Oh, yeah. He seemed kind of upset. Is he okay?"

Sirius sighed. "Well…did he ever tell you that he has a brother?"

"No…" said Tonks.

"Well, he has a brother named David. David's about…oh, he's about thirty now. Five years younger than Remus and I. David had a twin."

"Had?" Tonks asked, feeling her stomach sink.

"Remus also had a little sister named Xandy."

"Xandy?" Tonks asked, crinkling her nose. "That's even weirder than my name."

"Well, her name was Alexandra, but she didn't like it. So she adopted the nickname Xandy. Like Andy, but with an zzz sound in front. Spunky little kid. You remind me a lot of her, actually."

"Did she have pink hair?" Tonks asked with a slight smile.

Sirius chuckled. "No, but she desperately wanted to dye her hair neon green. Needless to say, Mrs. Lupin did not approve. So she settled for lime green highlights instead."

"I like this girl already," Tonks said, forgetting that Sirius had said that Remus "had" a little sister.

"Yeah, I liked her too," Sirius said sadly. "We went over there a couple of times, the group of us, Peter, James, Remus and I. I think Xandy had a bit of a crush on James. Always hung around him. Anyways, we were in our fifth year when it happened. Remus got a letter from his mum saying to come home immediately, that there was something wrong. Well, his parents didn't say what was wrong, so we didn't know how bad it was. Remus went home. A week later, we got a letter from him detailing…detailing the incident."

"What happened?" Tonks asked quietly, almost afraid to find out what had happened.

Sirius sighed. "There was a wizarding family next door. Pureblood. They hated Remus, because they knew about his condition. Whenever he went by, the two sons of the family threw rocks at him and yelled at him. They also targeted the rest of his family, teasing Xandy and David and whoever was with them at the time. One evening, Xandy and her friend Liz were walking home from another friend's house. They had just reached the Lupins' backyard when the neighboring boys jumped at them from the bushes. The girls tried to run, but the older kids were stronger and faster. They grabbed the two girls and brought them into the woods. When they were a bit into the trees, they beat the girls and performed terrible spells on them. I believe they even went as far as to use the Cruciatus Curse on the little girls."

Tonks gasped. "How old were they?"

"The boys were a couple of years older than we were at the time…seventeen, I think. The girls were ten."

"When you said picked on them, I thought you just meant name calling and—and minor things," said Tonks.

"Well, that's all it had been up until then," said Sirius sadly. "Nobody ever suspected that the boys would do something so brutal. Anyway, they tortured the two girls for too long. Xandy died."

"Oh, no," Tonks whispered. "What about Liz?"

"She's…she's in one of the permanent wards of St. Mungo's, one of the mental wards…they tortured her into insanity, a lot like Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom—" Tonks nodded, she had heard that story—"except much less known."

"That's so horrible," Tonks said, understanding now why Remus had been so sad at dinner the night before. "What about David? What happened to him?"

"Oh, he's alive and well, but…he was never the same, really," said Sirius, shaking his head. "Him and Xandy were inseparable…he was devastated when she died. He wouldn't talk for months. But when he did talk, he was cold towards Remus. He blamed him for what happened."

"He blamed _Remus_?" she asked incredulously. "For something that was out of his control? He was at school!"  
"Yes, but David believed that if Remus hadn't been a werewolf, none of this would have happened. It probably _wouldn't_ have happened, but it's not Remus' fault that he's a werewolf, either."

"What about the two boys? Were they sent to Azkaban?"

Sirius snorted. "Yeah. For six months."

"_Six months?"_

"Oh, yeah. Like I said, they were pureblood. They had money. They had contacts at the Ministry. And with Remus being a werewolf, the Lupin family really had no chance."

"That's wrong."

"It is. But the worst part is that Remus does think it's his fault."

"_What_?"

"I don't know if he listened to David or what, but I think that that's why he visits Liz faithfully. He tries to stop by at least once a week. I think he feels guilty."

"But it wasn't his fault!" said Tonks forcefully. "He shouldn't feel bad at all!"  
"I know. I've tried to tell him that. But I don't think he listens." They both fell silent.

"Should I let Remus know that I know?" Tonks asked quietly after a few moments.

"Yes. Normally, I would say no, but it's closer to the anniversary of Xandy's death, so he's taking it a bit harder than usual. He's usually very private about these things, but I think that if you show that you really care, it'll mean a lot. Maybe…maybe you could go to St. Mungo's with him."

"He would take me?" Tonks asked, surprised.

"I think that it would be easier with someone else there," Sirius said. "I would go, of course, but seeing as I'm trapped in this god-forsaken place…" he gestured around the dimly lit kitchen.

"I'll talk to him when he gets back. When is he supposed to get back?"

"Pretty soon, I think," Sirius said. "He left last night, and knowing him he probably got up at the butt crack of dawn to start the paperwork—" He stopped when he noticed that she was laughing. "What?"

"The _butt crack_ of dawn?" she asked. Sirius shrugged.

"Come on, don't tell me that you've never heard that expression before!"  
"Never."

"Your loss. Oh, here he is now!"

Tonks heard the front door open, then slow footsteps descending the stairs into the kitchen. Remus appeared a moment later, looking pale and tired.

"Hey, Moony," Sirius said.

"Hi, Remus."

"Hi, both of you. I forgot that you spent the night, Tonks."

"Yes, well, I kind of like it here," she said brightly. Remus looked mildly surprised before turning to Sirius.

"I'm heading over to St. Mungo's. I'll probably be back for dinner, if that's okay. If I'm not, don't worry. I might just go back to my flat immediately after I leave the hospital."

He turned to leave. "Bye, mate," Sirius said with a concerned expression on his features. He gave Tonks a little jerk of the head. "Go talk to him," he hissed into her ear. Tonks stood up abruptly.

"Remus, wait. I need to talk to you," she said. Remus turned back around to face it.

"Sure. What is it?"

"Let's go out here..." Tonks led him up into the entrance hall. "Remus, Sirius told me."

"Sirius told you what?" he asked, frowning.

"About...about Xandy and Liz. He told me the whole story."

Remus didn't say anything, but then pushed past her roughly and headed for the door. "Great. Now you know how screwed up my family was. Tell Sirius I said thanks." He had his hand on the doorknob when Tonks rushed forward and grabbed his arm.

"Please, Remus, I didn't mean to upset you," she said, tugging him away from the door. He complied, though he failed to meet her eyes. "I--I wanted to know--can I go with you?"

"What?" he asked, glancing briefly into her purple eyes before looking away again.

"I want to visit Liz with you," she said. "Please. I'm really sorry about Xandy, Remus. It was a horrible story. Really. I'm sorry."

He sighed. "I guess--it would--if you don't mind."

"I can come?" she said, surprised that he was actually agreeing.

"Sirius always told me that he wished he could come and make it easier for me, and it would make it a little less tough--but Sirius is basically under house arrest, so--" he gave her a small smile. "It would be really nice if you could come."

She returned his smile. "Let's go, then."

They walked out the door together, ready to go visit Liz.

**A/N Tell me what you think! I tried to make the story believable (I hope I did a good job) and I hope the chapter was okay overall. It's a bit short, but oh well. Please review the chapter and if possible tell me what you think of the trilogy idea, if you guys would read the other stories if I wrote them. Thanks!  
ClashChick )**


	14. Visiting Liz

Thank you for all of the reviews! Just so everyone knows, the trilogy idea is a go. Everyone seems to support it, so I think I will go ahead with it. This story is still going to be pretty long, but at least I won't have to cut it short to include the other two books. Okay, here's chapter 14!

Chapter 14 

Tonks followed Remus out into the quiet, still square. "This place gives me the creeps," she whispered. "It's too quiet."

"Not for long," Remus murmured under his breath. "The best way to go would be the Knight Bus. It makes a lot of noise, but I usually take it—it's the best way. Sirius sometimes lends me money for it, it's getting rather expensive. Come on, we have to walk a bit down to the corner. The driver doesn't like pulling into the square itself." They set off down past all of the derelict houses, until they finally reached a deserted street corner.

Remus looked around the quiet street, then threw out his arm. Immediately, there was a loud bang and a screech as the violently violet Knight Bus stopped in front of them. Remus winced.

"I wish it wasn't so loud…" he said. They stepped up to the bus as it opened and a teenager stepped out, saluting them pompously.

"'Eello, I'm Stan, and welcome to the—"

"Yes, we've been on it before, thank you," Remus said wearily. "Here's your money. Erm—" Suddenly, he looked at Tonks and blushed. "I haven't got any money for you."

"Oh, it's okay," she said brightly, pulling a handful of coins out of her robe pocket, and dumping them into the conductors hands. "There you go." The teenager nodded, and they followed him back onto the bus. There was one seat empty at the back.

"Are there any free seats on the upper deck?" Tonks asked hopefully. Stan shook his head apologetically. "Nope. Sorry, miss."

"Er—okay then." The pair headed to the back, where Remus gestured at the seat. "You take it."

"No, I couldn't," she said. "You sit."

"Really, Tonks. I'll stand. You sit."

"You know, young lady," an old woman cut in from her seat next to them. "You're lucky that your boyfriend has the manners to offer you the seat. Men don't have the chivalry nowadays to do that anymore!"

"Er—he's not my—"

"Oh, no, I'm not her—uh—"

"Thanks," Tonks said, quickly plopping down into the chair. She saw the old woman give a satisfied nod before turning back around in her seat.

"Nosy old hag," Tonks whispered under her breath. Remus shushed her, laughing.

The bus started up with a bang, and Tonks' seat fell over, throwing her against the wall.

"Sorry," Remus said apologetically. "Maybe we shouldn't have taken the bus."

"No, no, it's okay, it's just the first start that always takes me by surprise," she replied, trying to ignore the fact that one of Remus' arms was around her waist as he helped her up. She picked her chair back up, and sat cautiously in it again. "How long's the trip?"

"Not too long, I should think, though with all these people, it may take a bit longer than usual."

Tonks sat back in her seat, still feeling guilty that Remus was standing. Suddenly, to her horror, she noticed that the old lady that had reprimanded her earlier was scooting her chair around to face them, apparently with the intentions of starting a conversation.

"So where are you headed?" she asked, her blue eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"Er—the hospital," Remus answered.

"That's nice. What for?"

"To visit a friend," Tonks said defensively.

"Oh? And why is this friend in the hospital?"

"She's sick."

"Poor thing. So how long have you two been seeing each other?"

"We're _not_."

"Don't you think you're a bit too old for her?"

"We're not seeing each other!"

"I sure do hope that you two kids haven't had sex yet. Because you know, sex before marriage is wrong. Young people just _don't understand that anymore_!"

"I—what?" Remus asked, taken aback. Tonks felt her face start to burn as she slunk lower into her seat and covered her face with her hands. "She's not my girlfriend, ma'am."

"And no, we haven't had sex," Tonks chimed in from between her fingers, guessing the old woman's next question as she opened her mouth.

"Young people these days," the woman said, shaking her head. "Afraid of commitment. You know, back when I was just a young lass—"

"Oh, look, there are some seats up front," Remus said suddenly, pointing up to the front of the bus. "Sorry, ma'am, but my friend here gets horribly sick sitting in the back. We were just waiting for some seats farther up to empty out. Have a good day." Before Tonks could back up what he said, he had grabbed her arm and dragged her up to the front of the bus.

"Nice save," she said, grinning, as they both dropped into empty seats. He rolled his eyes. "Us two _kids_...how old is she?"

"I have no idea. She's almost always on the Knight Bus whenever I'm here. Nosiest woman alive. Not afraid of asking personal questions, either."

"Yeah, I kind of got that impression when she started asking if we had slept together."

She saw Remus flush. "Our stop's almost here," he muttered.

About ten minutes later, the bus pulled to a sharp stop in front of the hospital. "St. Mungo's!" Stan called out. Remus rose from his seat as Tonks picked herself back up off the floor, as she had been thrown from her seat again. They and a young woman with short red hair carrying a magnificent bouquet of flowers stepped off the bus. The three of them headed into the hospital, then made their way up to the front desk where the usual Welcome Witch was waiting.

"Hi, I'm here to see my husband?" the redheaded witch ahead of them said, smiling widely at the Welcome Witch, showing off wide, perfect shiny white teeth. "The name's Nicky Headon? I know where his room is already."

"Okay. You may go ahead," the blonde Welcome Witch said. "Next."

Remus stepped forward, and Tonks followed him. "I'm here to see Elizabeth Warden," Remus said. "She's in one of the permanent wards...?"

"Yep, go right ahead if you know where to go. Next."

Remus and Tonks took off towards the staircase. "She's on the fourth floor, in Spell Damage."

Tonks nodded, trying not to appear apprehensive. She honestly had no idea of how to act, and hadn't been to the hospital to visit anyone in a long time.

They walked up a few flights of stairs until they finally reached a door labeled "Spell Damage."

"This is it," Remus said. She could tell that he was trying to appear cheerful, but it wasn't working. No matter how hard he tried to smile, it always just looked like a grimace.

They started down the hall, passing many rooms. They passed one room that had a blonde haired, eager looking wizard peering out of the window at them.

"Oh my god, it's Gilderoy Lockhart!" Tonks gasped, stopping short. She heard Remus give a small chuckle before coming back to stand next to her.

"I wouldn't have pegged you to be one of his fans," he said, looking at her with his eyebrows raised.

"Oh, I'm not," Tonks said quickly. "Honestly, he's one of the most egocentric, big-headed idiots the wizarding world has ever seen. I just--I heard that he was in St. Mungo's, I didn't know why, is all."

"Oh, you haven't heard that story?" Remus said, giving a small laugh again. "Have you heard the Chamber of Secrets story? The more recent one, involving Harry?"

"Well...yeah, a bit, and I knew that Lockhart was involved, but..."

"He tried to erase Ron's and Harry's memories, but was using Ron's defective wand, which had been rather beaten up by the Womping Willow. It backfired, landing him here."

"Wow. That's...quite funny, actually."

Remus snorted. "Let's go, his staring is a bit unnerving."

Tonks had to agree. Lockhart had his face pressed up against the window, large blue eyes staring unblinkingly at them. They walked past a few more doors before finally coming to one that had a small plaque on it, saying Elizabeth Warden in small blue letters.

"Just a word of advice before we go in..." Remus said, turning to Tonks. He sighed and ran a hand through his graying brown hair. "The spells rather addled Liz's brain. She has the mental capacity of a child. Just play along with anything she does. If you don't cooperate, she'll throw a fit."

"Okay," she said, taking a nervous breath.

"Ready?" he asked, and she nodded. He knocked on the door. "There's usually a Healer in there," he explained. "And they like to keep it locked...you know...just in case."

Suddenly, the door opened and an older woman peeked her head around. "Oh, hello, Remus dear! What a pleasant surprise! And you've brought a lady friend, too!"

"Er...hello, Hannah," Remus said, returning the motherly woman's smile. "This is Nymphadora Tonks."

"Hi," Tonks said, forcing a smile to her face. "Just Tonks."

"Well, hello there, Tonks. Oh, Liz will be delighted to see you both!" The woman opened the door a little wider and turned around to address her patient. "Elizabeth! Guess who's here to see you!"

As they entered the room, Tonks noticed a tiny, frail looking woman sitting on the bed. She had long, brown hair that looked as though it had been lovingly brushed by Hannah. Her face was thin and gaunt looking, she had a smattering of light freckles over the bridge of her nose and across her thin cheeks, and she had large, beautiful brown eyes. Tonks was enthralled by those eyes, the only things that looked living on the woman's pale, drawn face, but with a pang of sadness realized that there was a dull, shadowed look to them.

Liz's face broke into a happy grin as she bounced up and down on the bed. "Yay! Yay! Remus!" Tonks noticed that her voice seemed much too high pitched and young sounding for her looks.

"Hello, Liz," Remus said, his voice cracking. "How are you?"

Tonks swallowed around a lump that had suddenly appeared in her throat. She stepped forward. "Hi, Liz. I'm Remus' friend. My name is Tonks." Liz stared at her for a moment, and then her smile got bigger.

"Tonks," she said slowly. "Toooooonks."

"How's Hannah been treating you, Liz? Do you two have fun together?" Remus asked, sitting down in a chair beside Liz's bed and gesturing for Tonks to do the same.

"Fun. We did a puzzle yesterday."

"That's great!" Remus said, and Tonks could hear the forced happiness in his voice. "What was the puzzle of?"

"A puppy. A cute little puppy dog," Liz said, rocking back in forth on the bed, staring at Remus with her large eyes.

"How's she been doing?" Remus asked Hannah in a low voice as Liz began humming to herself.

"Oh, she's been good. We've been making some progress. She can read some picture books now," Hannah said proudly. Tonks felt the lump return again, and to her horror, felt tears welling up in her eyes. She didn't know why visiting Liz affected her this way, but for some reason it made her feel an inexplicable sadness.

"That's great!" Remus said, true enthusiasm in his voice now. "It's a good sign that her mind's developing this way, right?"

"I should think so," said Hannah. "But I'm afraid that she won't ever act like her true age."

Remus nodded, Tonks noticed, with extreme difficulty. He turned to Liz again. "So, how has--" he started to say until he was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"That may be her mother," Hannah said curiously, getting up and opening the door. "I didn't think that she would--oh, hello, David! I wasn't expecting to see you here for such a long time! Remus is here, and he brought along a friend! Come on in!"

A man walked through the door, and Tonks instantly recognized that he was related to Remus. He had similar facial features, the same nose and chin as Remus, except with blue eyes instead of Remus' brown ones, and black hair instead of brown. She also noticed that he looked a whole lot healthier than Remus.

"Hello, David," Remus said with a steely tone to his voice that Tonks had never heard before.

"Hello, Remus," David said with the same cold indifference. "Who's this?"

"Um, hi, I'm Tonks," Tonks said, giving David a feeble smile. He nodded to her.

"You his girlfriend?"

Tonks fought the urge to roll her eyes as she thought of the old woman on the bus. "No, I'm just a friend."

He surveyed her hair with narrowed eyes, then turned to Liz, who was sitting on the bed with an expectant smile on her face.

"Hi, Liz," David said in an entirely different tone than the one he had addressed Remus with. "How have you been?"

"Good," Liz said, smiling up at David. "Can I have a hug?"

"Sure thing, sweetie," said David, leaning in and embracing the fragile woman in a careful hug. Tonks noticed that Remus hadn't been asked for a hug, and from the look on his face, he had noticed the same thing.

"So how has she been, Hannah?"

"Good, good, she's been relearning how to read..." Hannah went into length about the picture books that they had been working on, and Tonks scooted closer to Remus. She laid a hand on his arm, making him jump.

"You okay?" she asked quietly. Remus, who had been staring at David with a sour look on his face, nodded.

"Fine," he said shortly. He took a breath to say something else, but was cut off when David plopped down into the seat next to him.

"I didn't know you would be here," David said coolly.

"Nor did I know you would be here."

"When was the last time you visited here? Last time I stopped by, Hannah said that you hadn't been here for a while." There was an unmistakably smug look on David's face.

"I've been busy."

"Really? With what, your _job_?" Tonks heard the mocking tone in his voice.

"It's really none of your business," Remus said, clearly trying to hide the hurt in his voice. He turned to watch Hannah and Liz, who were now reading a picture book together, Liz reciting the words in a loud, slow voice. Hannah kept on shooting them nervous glances, and Tonks was sure that she knew about the problems between the two men.

"I was just curious why you come now, of all times," David said with a nonchalant shrug. "Feeling guilty?"

"I--you--I don't feel _guilty_--" Remus sputtered, face turning red. David smiled, satisfied.

"And why should he feel guilty?" said Tonks sharply, coming to Remus' rescue. David only looked surprised for a moment before the defiant mask came back on.

"Because if he hadn't been what he is, my sister wouldn't have died, and her friend wouldn't be reduced to the mental capacity of a five year old!" David hissed.

"It's not his fault he's a bloody werewolf!" she said, her voice rising. Hannah looked over, alarmed, before quickly returning to the book. "You think he WANTED to get bitten?"

"Tonks, please--" Remus pleaded, but Tonks was angry, and there was no stopping her now.

"You think he _wanted_ to be shunned from society his whole life? _Wanted_ to be denied privileges that every human being deserves to have? _Wanted his little sister to die?"_

She couldn't stop herself. She had no idea why she was getting so worked up, but David was just so obnoxious and condescending, and she hated that kind of person. And, a small part of her mind admitted, she hated anyone that would be so nasty and prejudiced towards Remus.

"It's his bloody fault!" David said, rising from his seat in a gesture of defiance. Tonks rose too, to show him that she wasn't afraid.

"Please, you two, sit down!" Remus said in a firm voice, apparently recovered from David's stinging accusation. He stood up and tugged on both of their robes.

"Get your hands off me!" David snarled, pulling out of Remus' grasp. Hannah and Liz were no longer reading, but were both observing the scene now. Hannah laid the book down in Liz's lap, whispered something to the woman, then headed over to the three visitors.

"Please, you three, you'll upset her--"

"You think she's not upset now?" David spat. "Her best friend's dead and she's in a bloody mental ward, and it's all because of my lovely brother here--"

"Don't use that language in front of her, please," Hannah said, and Tonks saw a look flash through her eyes that reminded her of Mrs. Weasley when she was warning one of her children.

"Hannah?" Liz whispered, her lip trembling.

"Oh, sweetie, I'm coming," Hannah said hurriedly, rushing to the woman's side. "Oh, honey, please don't cry, you're all right, please don't--"

But Tonks winced as she saw the tears start spilling down Liz's cheeks. David, Remus and Tonks all watched, horrified, as her face turned purple as all of her pent up energy began to build up in a silent scream.

"Oh, no," Hannah murmured. "Oh, Liz--" She turned to glare at the visitors. "You three. Out. Now." When they didn't move, she gave them a look that once again reminded Tonks forcibly of Mrs. Weasley.

"We didn't know that we would--"

"We're really sorry, Hannah--"

"Liz, it's okay, calm down. We're sorry, Liz--"

"Out!" yelled Hannah. Remus, David and Tonks all scurried hurriedly from the room, where Hannah slammed the door behind them, but not before they heard a bloodcurdling scream finally erupt from Liz's mouth. The three stared, wide-eyed, at the closed door. Then David turned to Remus.

"Good job. Probably got us banned from visiting ever again."

Remus' face turned bright red again. "What do you mean, _good job_? Like this is _my fault_?"

"Yeah!" David said, his voice rising. "If you hadn't picked a fight with me--"

"Me? Pick the fight?" Remus said, nearly yelling. "If I remember clearly, it was _you_ that started blaming me for things that happened years ago--"

"Oh, so you don't deny that they were your fault?" David asked, suddenly quiet. Remus opened his mouth, but he was apparently at a loss of what to say. Tonks had never seen him so worked up before, even when he was provoked by Snape. Seeing Remus like this wasn't something that she hoped to see ever again.

"I never--I--"

"You blame yourself, don't you?" David asked, nearly whispering now. This sudden change of mood made Tonks feel a bit uneasy. David cocked his head, staring at Remus with a strange gaze. "I blame you, mum and dad blame you, and you blame yourself too. You know that Xandy died and Liz is screwed up because of you, because you're a _freak_--"

"Come on, Remus, let's go," Tonks said, tugging on the sleeve of Remus' robes, but he didn't budge.

"You were a freak as a child, and you're an adult freak now. No job, no girlfriend, nothing. When was the last time you visited mum and dad? You're afraid to go back and visit them because you know that they're ashamed of you, that they--"

"That's not true," Remus said angrily. "I just haven't had time--"

"You don't seem to have time for anything anymore, do you? How come? Like I said, it's not as if you have a job or you're in any kind of relationship--"

"It's none of your business, David, and I don't see why you're picking fights with me--"

"He's just jealous, Remus," said Tonks, suddenly realizing why David was being so nasty.

Both men turned to stare at her incredulously. "What the hell are you talking about?" David spat.

"As a child, Remus always got more attention than you. I bet your mum and dad did everything they could to help him, and you felt neglected. You were also one of the youngest, so those feelings were normal, but they were magnified by the fact that Remus is a werewolf. You felt like nobody cared about you. That's why you hate him so much. You've just been jealous of him ever since you were children, the accident was just an excuse for you to let those feelings out." There was a long pause.

"Jealous? As if," David finally said with a snort. Remus ignored him.

"Let's go, Nymphadora." David gave another snort.

"Words of wisdom coming from a woman named Nymphadora?"

"I think it's a very pretty name," Remus said. "Now _let's go_."

Without another word, Remus and Tonks set off down the hall, leaving David standing alone in the hallway outside Liz's room, his mouth open with disbelief. "She's wrong!" David yelled, his voice carrying down the hall.

As Remus started to turn around, Tonks grabbed his arm and stopped him. "Don't," she said under her breath. "He's just trying to get a rise out of you. That's what he's been doing this whole time."

They continued in silence until they exited the building. "We're taking the Knight Bus again," Remus said shortly. Tonks nodded quickly.

"That's fine," she said tentatively. "Remus, what--"

She was cut off by the screech of the bus as it pulled up to the curb. As Stan hopped out, Remus dropped a handful of coins into his hand. "Sorry, you have to pay for yourself again."

"I know, that's perfectly fine. Remus--"

"Come on, let's go find some seats." She followed him onto the bus, which had nearly no passengers this time and was thankfully empty of nosy old ladies. They took two seats at the back. As the bus started up and took off again, Tonks managed to stay in her seat. Remus turned to look out the window.

"Remus. Listen to me. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He paused. "I could've handled that myself, you know."

"What? But you--"

"I'm just saying, you didn't have to say any of those things." He turned to look at her. She felt heat rise in her face.

"Are you blaming me for what happened?" she asked incredulously. "Do you seriously think that this whole fiasco was my fault?"

"What? No!" Remus said quickly. "I'm just--I'm not used to anyone sticking up for me, is all. Sorry. I didn't mean to sound mad. It's just that...I don't know, being around David just puts me in a really bad mood. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take it out on you."

"Oh. That's okay."

"Thank you, though. For saying--for saying what you said. That means a lot to me. I didn't know that David really disliked me that much."

"Well, like I said, he's probably jealous. Deep down, he knows that nothing was your fault."

"But it was my fault!" Remus said. "If I hadn't--"

"If you hadn't had an incurable disease? Listen to me, Remus. It wasn't your fault."

He fell silent, then turned to face the window again. "Thank you," he said softly.

"No problem. I always stick up for friends," she said. They fell into a comfortable silence until something that had been nagging at the back of her mind finally forced her to mention it. "Did you really mean it when you said that Nymphadora was a pretty name?"

"Er--well--yes," he said, blushing.

"Oh--well, then, thank you," she said, rather taken aback. No one had ever really done anything except make fun of her unusual name, with the exception of her parents, who, as parents, were required to say that it was a nice name. Especially as they had picked it.

"You staying for dinner?" Remus asked suddenly, turning back around to face her. "Molly may come over. She probably will. She spends a lot of time at Grimmauld Place now. The children will probably be in tow."

"Oh, I hope so, I'm in the mood for some of her cooking right now," Tonks replied wistfully. "It'd be nice to visit a bit with Ginny too. I like her--she's great."

"I taught her," Remus said, nodding. "She's a really sweet kid. I'm honestly not surprised that you two have become friends." He smiled at her. "So that's a yes, then?"

"What? Oh, yeah, I'll stay for dinner...poor Sirius needs some company, too."

"Yeah..."

The rest of the bus ride was mostly spent in companionable silence, until the bus suddenly pulled to an abrupt stop. "Grimmauld Place!" Stan called.

They thanked Stan, then exited the bus. They only had to walk a little bit before they reached the headquarters. Remus quickly pulled out his wand, tapped the door and then stepped inside. Tonks followed.

"Watch the umbrella stand," he murmured, and Tonks quickly stepped out of the way. Sure enough, she had been about to trip over it.

"Sirius should have that thing destroyed," she muttered. She heard Remus laugh quietly.

"Um, listen, Nymphadora...thanks."

"It's Tonks. For what?" she asked rather loudly, confused. She glanced at the portrait of Sirius' mum, then repeated her question more quietly. "Sorry. For what?"

"For coming today. It really meant a lot to me. And for sticking up for me...sorry about the way we acted. David and I, I mean. We were being rather immature. We must have made a real good impression."

"I don't think that you were being immature," she said reassuringly. "David was a bit--alright, a lot--but you were--"

"Frustrated," he finished. "I was frustrated."

She nodded, giving him a small smile. They were silent for a few moments, staring at each other, and then, suddenly, Tonks realized with a jolt that he was leaning in towards her, almost as if to...kiss her.

_Oh my god, maybe Ginny was right,_ she thought fervently._ Maybe he does really like me. Oh my god, what do I do?_

But before she had time to find out if Ginny was right or not, there were footsteps on the dusty carpet, and Tonks saw over Remus' shoulder the form of Sirius stumble into the hall. They quickly stepped away from each other.

"Stupid house-elf, always getting in my way--" he grumbled. He stopped short at the sight of them. "Oh, hey, you guys! I didn't expect you back so soon!"

"Er--yeah, David was there..."

They proceeded down to the kitchen, where Remus told Sirius the rest of the story.

"So...we just decided to leave," Remus finished, sighing and running his fingers through his greying hair.

Sirius shook his head. "That bastard," he muttered. "I'm sorry, I know he's your brother, but--"

"It's okay," Remus cut in quickly.

"So...when's Molly going to be here?" Tonks asked, changing the subject.

"Oh, sometime soon," Sirius said, waving his hand around dismissively. "Before you guys got here, it was just me and Kreacher. I think that little creep tripped me on purpose..."

As Sirius went off on a rant about the old house-elf, Tonks thought about what had happened in the hall. Had she been imagining it, or was Remus really going to kiss her? She shook herself mentally. Of course she was imagining it, he didn't return her feelings. Suddenly, she realized that for the first time, she was accepting the idea that she fancied him. She had kept on denying it to herself for so long, but now, judging from the way she had felt when she was in the hall with him, she definitely had feelings. She decided to maybe casually mention it to Ginny later--the girl seemed to have accurate insight on how Remus felt towards her. Smiling slightly, she excused herself and went up to her room to ponder her newfound interest.

**A/N Er...I didn't really like that chapter. But because it's been so long, I decided to post it anyways. The next chapter may not be out for a while, and I may go back and revise some parts of my story. But anyways, please review! Tell me what you think!**


	15. Allegria's Observations

Yay, I'm finally updating!! Sorry it's been so long. Thank you to Tonks14 for your review--I always like to respond to reviews, and since yours was anonymous, I'm thanking you in the story, as you've probably already figured out...okay, anyways, thanks:) Thank you also to everyone that reviewed--they were greatly appreciated! And once again, I'm so sorry that it's taken so long for me to update!

Disclaimer: The only thing I own here is Allegria, sadly.

Chapter 15

Tonks entered the Ministry the next day feeling rather cheerful. She was hesitant to admit that her more-cheerful-than-usual demeanor was because of a new object of affection, but was quite sure that that was the case.

She muttered a quick charm that allowed her to enter her cubicle, bounded in and saw a new stack of paperwork, as usual. Surprisingly, this didn't bring down her mood. She decided to tackle it early, get it over with and then get out of the Ministry.

She had barely settled down in her chair when she heard a loud, familiar voice. "Tonks! Sweetie, I'm back!" Tonks stood up quickly and turned around excitedly.

"Allegria! I didn't know you would be back so soon!" She ran at the woman standing outside of the cubicle and gave her a large hug. "Welcome back!" She finally relinquished her grip on her best friend and stood at arms length, observing her.

Allegria looked the same as she had when she had left for a two month long vacation in Mongolia--shoulder length, wavy, thick black hair, impossibly dark eyes, a fragile pale face with a small, slightly upturned nose, and full red lips. She had been born in Italy, where her parents still resided, and had inherited her mother's extremely good looks. She now grinned slyly at Tonks. The two had known each other since Hogwarts; though her parents had lived in Italy, they had known Dumbledore and had eagerly sent their daughter to the place where they believed she would be safest and get the best education.

"Well, things didn't work out with Todd...we broke up a few days ago, and I got sick of him, so I just decided to stay home, since vacations aren't fun if you're alone." She gave a small pout that was belied by her smiling eyes. "I also missed you, sweetie. How have you been?"

"Come on in..." Tonks conjured a chair for her friend, which made the already tiny cubicle incredibly cramped. She quickly cast a silencing charm around the area, so to give her and her friend a bit more privacy. She then took a seat in her own chair and turned to face Allegria. "I've been good..."

"What've you been up to while I was gone?" Allegria grinned at her. "Meet any guys?"

Tonks' eyes widened involuntarily. It was as if her friend had read her mind. She was still shy about it, but she felt the dire need to tell someone about Remus as she was starting to think about him more and more. "Yeah, I met a guy," she said nonchalantly, inspecting her fingernails.

"Ooh, who, who?" Allegria shrieked loudly, causing Tonks to wince. She was immediately glad that she had used a charm on the cubicle.

"Well, his name is Remus..."

"I like his name," Allegria said promptly. Tonks rolled her eyes. Her friend had always had a rather soft spot for different names, as hers wasn't too usual around the area.

"Remus Lupin, and...well, he's different than my previous interests," Tonks explained. "Um...well, first of all, he's really nice...he's a real gentlemen. And he's...older. By twelve years."

"Ooh, an older man?" Allegria said, eyebrows raised and the beginnings of a smile on her beautiful Italian features.

Tonks blushed, then quickly morphed it away. "Yeah...but he's not like this lecherous old man...he's really nice...he used to be a Hogwarts professor." Allegria surveyed her through her black fringe.

"Professor? What happened to you while I was gone? What happened to the green hair, nose ring, tattoo covered guys you used to--"

Tonks held up a hand. "Okay, Al. That's good." She sighed, then picked up a quill and the first sheet of paperwork on the pile. "I think I really fancy him, though, Ally. He's the first guy I've ever...felt really nervous around."

Allegria made a show of acting shocked. "Confident Nymphadora? Nervous around a guy? Seriously, what happened while I was in Mongolia?" Tonks just shook her head and shrugged, smiling slightly. "Oh, well, don't worry, sweetie, I sort of like the change. You getting nervous over a guy? It proves you're actually human." Tonks smacked Allegria lightly.

"I have to get working, but you're welcome to stay if you'd like..." Tonks started on her paperwork, and Allegria made no move to get up. All was quiet except for Allegria's soft humming, and when that stopped, Tonks turned around to find her friend dozing in her chair, presumably still suffering from jet lag, even though she had probably apparated back.

A few hours passed, and still Allegria dozed on. Tonks was starting to doze off too when she heard someone knock lightly on the outside of her cubicle. She sat up quickly and shook Allegria awake. "Someone's here," she explained, getting up to greet her visitor. To her immense surprise and pleasure, it was Remus Lupin.

"Wotcher," she said, smiling widely at him.

"Er...hi, sorry to disturb you, but...I was in the Ministry, and Moody had some papers he wanted you to look over. He was busy, so he sent me."

"He couldn't get off his arse, you mean," Tonks said, though her smile showed her fondness for her mentor. She took the surprisingly small pile of papers from Remus' hands and set them on the desk. She suddenly felt Allegria nudge her in the ribs.

"Oh, I completely forgot," she said, feeling that this scene was vaguely familiar, though instead of Jared by her side, her best friend was, and the atmosphere was altogether happier. "This is my friend Allegria. She just got back from Mongolia, so she's pretty tired. Allegria, this is Remus Lupin." She fought the urge to blush, and she prayed that Allegria wouldn't say or do anything that gave away what she had said earlier. Though Allegria's eyes widened ever so slightly, to Tonks' immense relief, she did nothing more than reach out a hand to shake Remus' extended one.

"Pleasure," she said, surveying him in what Tonks hoped was a conspicuous manner. Remus didn't seem to notice Allegria's intense scrutiny of him as he smiled warmly at her.

"Pleasure to meet you too," he said brightly. Tonks cleared her throat.

"So...what brings you to the Ministry?" she asked.

Remus licked his lips nervously. "Oh, you know...stuff..."

"Like wha--oh," she said, suddenly realizing that he might've been in the Beast division to deal with something to do with his 'problem'.

"Yeah...and I was rather hoping to run into you," he said, giving her a small smile.

"Oh?" she said, cocking her head and returning his grin. "To give me paperwork?"

"No..." he blushed. "Just...to, er...visit. Visit a bit."

"Ah," Tonks said, now starting to become uncomfortable at Allegria's smug, knowing grin. "Are you going to dinner tonight?"

"Yeah," he replied. "I'm always there, aren't I? Poor..." he glanced nervously at Allegria, who was still standing next to Tonks with a knowing smile on her features. "Poor Padfoot needs company. I don't know why I bother paying the rent on my flat...maybe I should just move in permanently."

"I've already moved half of my closet into my room there," she said. He smiled, then nodded to her.

"I'd better get going...let you continue with the work...it was nice meeting you, Allegria. I'll see you tonight, Nymphadora." With a small wave, he walked away. Tonks collapsed back into her chair, and Allegria eagerly perched on the end of hers, all tiredness gone.

"You have never let anybody get away with calling you Nymphadora," she said, her large, liquid-like eyes wide. "Never. Not even me."

"Oh, I forgot to correct him," Tonks said with a dismissive wave of her hand. The humongous snort she heard as she turned back to her work told her that Allegria hadn't believed her in the slightest.

"You really do fancy him a lot, don't you?" she said. She gave Tonks a small, sly smile. "I don't blame you. He seems like a nice guy..." she leaned closer to Tonks, so close that Tonks could feel her breath tickling her ear. "And I think he likes you too."

Tonks fought the urge to jump out of her chair. "You've been conspiring with Ginny!" she cried, startled by Allegria's words.

Her friend crinkled her tiny nose. "What? Who's Ginny?" she asked. Tonks shook her head.

"She's this girl...that I met...that I met at--" she sighed. "That's not the point, we were talking and she basically implied that Remus and I should get together!"

"Well, you should," Allegria replied. "You guys would be a cute couple...and I really DO think that he fancies you back...I mean, come on, you don't really think that he was just 'in the Ministry', do you? He's just looking for excuses to see you! He practically said so himself!" She gave Tonks a quick hug and a friendly peck on the cheek. "Love you, sweetie. I'm gonna head home and crash. See you later!" She waved at Tonks as she retreated out of the cubicle. Tonks quickly Vanished the chair, giving her a little more room.

She thought about what Allegria had said. Remus had stopped by twice in the past week, not that she minded...sighing, she got back to tackling her paperwork, in the hopes that she could soon head back to Grimmauld Place and visit with her new favorite Hogwarts professor.

A/N That chapter didn't really have a point, except that I introduced Allegria...I'm exhausted while writing this but just felt like I really needed to get another chapter out (that's how much I love you guys, hee hee!). Please review! I am hoping to get Allegria in some more later, seeing as this chapter was supposed to be more about her, rather than Remus and Tonks, but it kind of ended up with the latter...okay, well, before I put you to sleep with my extremely long and boring authors note (before I put myself to sleep) I'll go. Please read and review!!


	16. Stakeout

Wow, at the rate I'm going, it's going to take years to write a trilogy, isn't it? Ah, well...it'll give you guys something to read, I guess...Like always, thank you for all of the reviews! They were greatly appreciated, and I wouldn't mind getting more...;) Thank you also to **panthers rock nj **and **2lazee2login** (haha, nice name) for your reviews, since they were anonymous and I couldn't reply to them any other way. And also, this chapter was inspired by **SeraphineBlack**'s suggestion in a review (a long, long time ago) that they should go on some kind of mission together. And yes, I know I skipped a few months here, but I really need to get going...the next chapter was going to take place around holiday time, but I decided to make this chapter take place around then, as sort of a gift to my readers...you'll find out why:) Oh, and I can't remember exactly when Arthur was attacked by the snake, but I will add that in here as soon as I can find the book and check. Okay, sorry for the incredibly long and boring author's note, here's the chapter!

Chapter 16

The weeks passed by fast, especially with all of the work that Tonks had been doing for the Order and for her job. She had to admit that working for both the Ministry and the Order of the Phoenix made her feel rather like a double agent, but it didn't bother her too much, as she put much faith in Dumbledore.

She had been technically living at Grimmauld Place for almost a month now. She only went to her flat about once a week, and that was usually to grab something to bring back to headquarters. She enjoyed keeping Sirius company, and she secretly enjoyed being around Remus so much, as he was also there as often as her, both to give Sirius some company and to do various work for the Order.

The children had been in school for a few months now, which made it rather lonely. Tonks missed the Weasley children, especially Ginny, whom she had grown even closer to lately. Tonks was pleased whenever Ginny sent letters from Hogwarts, and she always replied immediately. She even missed Fred and George and their loud antics, which had often made her laugh.

One brisk day in the middle of December, Tonks managed to get into Grimmauld Place without any incident. Proud that she had avoided the dreaded troll leg, she happily skipped her way downstairs. Today, she had a field assignment. She had had many before this one, but lately Remus had been her partner. She had no idea how her luck had turned out this way, but she certainly was glad it did.

She entered the kitchen to find Sirius cooking. "Wotcher, Sirius," she said, trying and failing to keep the confused tone from entering her greeting. "Er...you're...cooking."

"Yeah, well, Molly's not stopping by tonight, and I got sick of Chinese food, and I think you and Remus got sick of going out to get the Chinese food, so I figured we'd have a nice, home-cooked meal tonight," he replied, sounding much cheerier than he had in ages. Tonks nodded slowly, then took a seat.

"Smells really good," she said, surprised. Sirius turned around and rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, well, I'm not a total disaster, you know. I can cook. Unlike Moony here." He grinned at Remus, who had just entered the kitchen.

"What's that smell?" Remus said. "Are you making stew, Sirius?"

"What's with the surprised tone?" Sirius grumbled, sounding miffed, though Tonks could tell that he really wasn't.

"No, it's just...wow, that smells great," Remus said, taking a seat across from Tonks. "You just keep on doing whatever you're doing, Padfoot."

"Will do," Sirius said, giving Remus a mock salute and turning back around to the large steel pot that he was preparing dinner in. As he started whistling an unrecognizable tune, Remus turned to her and smiled.

"So, are you ready for the stakeout tonight?" She shrugged.

"Oh, as ready as I can be, I guess. I just hope this damn snow stops. We've got a couple of inches already, and it's supposed to continue through the night...And tell me again why Mad-Eye thinks that Death Eaters will be meeting in a pasture in the middle of nowhere?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Remus said, shaking his head. "If I had my choice, I would not be spending my night sitting in trees at the edge of a meadow, in the snow, waiting for a meeting that is most likely never going to happen."

Tonks sighed. "Same here. But if nothing happens, all the better, right?"

Remus shrugged. "I guess..."

"Do you guys like carrots in your stew?"

"Yes," they both replied. Sirius turned back around and started using his wand to chop up bits of carrot and add them to the simmering stew.

"So what time do we have to leave?" Tonks asked, trying not to seem too excited, seeing as Remus didn't seem all that thrilled.

"Oh, we can probably just leave after dinner...I think it's just going to be us, is it, Sirius? No one else is coming?"

"Nope," Sirius replied absentmindedly. "After we eat you two are free to go prance around in the meadow..."

About half an hour later, Sirius had finished the stew. He ladled it out in bowls for the three of them, grabbed some butterbeers, and took his own seat at the table. They ate in silence for a few minutes until Sirius broke the silence, apparently becoming bored.

"So...how's work been, Tonks?"

"Oh, the usual..." she replied. "It's been a load of paperwork. Gone out into the field a couple times."

Sirius snorted. "The _usual._ What I would give to be an Auror..."

Remus gave him a stern look. "You are to _remain in the house_," he said. Sirius gave him a strange look.

"What are you, my mum? I never said I was actually going to leave the house. Well, you'd make a better mum, I suppose, because my mum wouldn't actually _care _if I was in danger..."

"Excuse me, I would _not _make a better _mum_, I'm just worried about you sometimes..."

"Yes. Exactly. Mothers worry. You're not a mother, Moony, unless you've been hiding something from me all these years--"

"I'm a _friend,_ Sirius, _friends_ care for their friends--"

Tonks rolled her eyes at their bickering and finished up her meal. Draining the last of her butterbeer, she stood up.

"I'm ready when you are, Remus," she said, carefully setting her dishes in the sink. "Thanks for the stew, Sirius, it was wonderful."

"Hey, no problem, gave me something to do in this godforsaken place," Sirius replied cheerfully. "You two have fun now!"

"You'll be okay while we're gone?" Remus asked, also finishing his stew.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "What's with all the concern all of a sudden? _Yes_, of course I'll be fine, I'll just go hang out with Buckbeak or something...see you two later." With that, he headed up the stairs, leaving Remus and Tonks alone in the kitchen. It was suddenly awkward without Sirius' cheery presence.

"Er...we'll be going now, shall we?" Remus said, putting his dishes in the sink also.

"Uh, yeah, sounds good," she said, grabbing her cloak off the back of her chair. They had made it to the front door when Tonks realized that she had left her wand on the table. "Oh, sorry, I'll be right back," she said apologetically, running back down the stairs and into the kitchen. Not seeing her wand on the table, she started searching frantically. Just as she was about to give up and admit her own stupidity, she heard footsteps and turned around to see Sirius enter the kitchen, twirling her wand between his fingers.

"Forget something?" he asked, smirking.

She rolled her eyes. "Almost gave me a heart attack," she muttered. "Moody would've skinned me alive." She took the wand from Sirius, who grinned at her.

"Yeah, well, have fun with Remus, now. Stay on task."

"What do you mean, stay on task?" she said, narrowing her eyes.

"Well, you know, no stake-out sex--"

"What do you mean?" she sputtered again, face turning red. Sirius snorted.

"Oh, come on, it's so obvious...you two are practically falling all over each other."

"So...er...you've noticed." Sirius grinned at her triumphantly.

"Hate to break it to you, _Nymphadora--_" She glared at him. "But everyone has noticed. Why do you think Molly always has you two sit next to each other at the table, or why she leaves the room all the time when only you two are in there? Why do you think the twins were always making werewolf sex jokes when they were here? And why do you think Moody has assigned you with Remus as your partner for the past however many assignments? Even though honestly, I'm surprised he would even _consider _putting you two together, never thought of Moody as the match-maker--"

Tonks groaned. "_Moody _knows? God, am I really that obvious?"

"You have nothing to worry about, the man in question hasn't noticed...Moony's as thick as anything. Not that it would be a big deal. I mean, Moony's been mooning over a certain someone since...oh, I don't know...since you guys met?"

"I'm leaving," Tonks said indignantly. "Remus is waiting."

"Okay, well, have fun, now," Sirius replied, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. Tonks groaned and ran up the stairs to find Remus still waiting patiently at the door.

"Sorry, couldn't find my wand," she said breathlessly. He smiled at her and opened the door.

"No problem. What were you and Sirius talking about down there?"

"Oh...uh...Sirius was asking for the details. Of our thing. You know, the assignment," she stammered. Remus raised his eyebrows and nodded, but didn't say anything. "Let's go," she muttered. They headed out into the cold, and about ten minutes later, they entered a deserted meadow.

"So...where do we wait for the non-existent meeting to start?" she asked, shivering. Remus surveyed the flat, open pasture, also looking like he was freezing.

"I guess we could sit in a tree, one of the ones on the edge...that's really the only way we're not going to be seen if anybody actually shows up."

Tonks groaned. "Right, then, let's find a tree. Same tree, or different ones?"

"I suppose we can sit in the same tree...oh, here's a good one, lots of cover...I don't know if we can reach the bottom branch though..."

"Give me a leg up," Tonks said, walking over to the chosen tree. Remus knelt on the ground, laced his hands together, and pushed up as Tonks stepped onto his hands. She managed to grab the bottom limb, and swung herself up. She now reached down and took Remus' hand as he attempted to half climb, half shimmy up the trunk and onto the branch. She was somewhat surprised to feel that he wasn't all that heavy for a grown man.

Finally, both were situated as comfortable as they could be on the branch. "So now we wait?" Tonks sighed.

"Now we wait."

They were silent for nearly forty five minutes. Nothing was moving except for the wind whistling through the trees on the border of the meadow. It was still snowing, and Tonks was wistfully thinking of the warm kitchen at Grimmauld place. Suddenly, a crack shot through the air. Startled, Tonks nearly fell off the branch. Remus quickly leaned forward and grabbed her arms, pulling her back up. Once he was sure that she was settled, he let go, although he kept one hand on her arm while they both drew their wands. "What do you think it was?" she whispered.

"I don't know, but I don't see anyone," he murmured back, his breath tickling her ear. "Let's just wait and see if we can spot something before we do anything." They heard another crunch.

"It sounds like someone stepping on twigs..." Suddenly, Remus sighed and stuck his wand back into his pocket.

"What? We can't be sure that--" Tonks started to say, before Remus pointed at something near the base of the tree. She looked down to see a red fox glaring back up at them. She swore under her breath.

"Stupid animal, nearly made my heart stop!" Remus laughed.

"Better than Death Eaters, though, isn't it?" he said. She agreed.

"But what do we do now? How much longer do we need to stay?"

Remus glanced at the watch on his wrist. "About another half hour, then I'd say it's safe to head back." He sighed and leaned back against the trunk of the tree. "How are you doing? Are you cold?"

"Freezing," she replied, even though she had worn her heaviest cloak with a scarf. "Forgot gloves, though. My hands are ice cubes."

Even though she could barely see him, as it was starting to get dark, she heard a rustling of cloth. "Here, wear mine."

"Oh, no, you keep them on," she said. "I'll be fine--" She felt him take one of her hands and slip a glove on.

"They're falling apart anyway, it's not like they'll do much good...hopefully they'll make your hands a bit warmer, though." She felt him slip the other glove on, and she smiled.

"Thanks." They fell silent again, but this time Tonks felt the urge to continue talking. "So what are your Christmas plans?"

She heard him snort. "Plans? I wish I had plans. I'm probably just going to stay at Grimmauld with Sirius...how about you?"

"Oh, I don't know...probably visit my mum and dad at some point, but I was hoping...maybe to spend Christmas with you two? At Grimmauld place?" The last bit came out rather fast. There was a pause. When Remus finally spoke, his voice was a tone of pleasant surprise.

"That would be nice," he replied. "We could use some extra company...maybe Molly and Arthur will come, too. I'm not sure if the children are coming home for the holidays, but..."

"Alright then," she said happily. "So...let's light our wands, I can't see a thing."

"But we'll blow our cover--" he started. Tonks snorted.

"Remus, no one is coming. We only have about, what, twenty minutes left anyway?"

"Alright...but if we hear or see _any _sign of something, we put them out." Their wand tips flared. Tonks tried to think of something else to say. Suddenly, she thought of what Sirius had said back at headquarters. "So...do you fancy anyone?"

"Er--what?" She grinned at the nervous tone in his voice. "Why?"

"I'm bored, Remus, I'm starting a conversation. I said, do you fancy anyone? You know, a woman? Or a man, I suppose, it _is _your preference--"

"Uh, not really."

"Oh," she said, disappointed until she realized that he was probably lying.

"What about you? Do you have a boyfriend?"

"Nope," she said cheerily. "I do fancy a certain bloke, though."

"Really." She noted the jealous note in his voice with glee.

"Yep," she replied, trying not to grin. "He's real sweet. Don't think he realizes that I like him, though."

"Ah. Is he an Auror?" he said gruffly. _I should listen to Ginny and Sirius from now on, _she thought. _Allegria, too._

"Uh, no, not exactly," she answered. "But you do know him..."

"Really?" Remus sounded interested now, if not a little more jealous. Feeling emboldened, Tonks continued giving him hints.

"Yeah...very well," she said. "I'd say you know him best of all..." Desperately hoping that what Sirius said was true, she felt the sudden need to reveal her feelings, one hint at a time.

Remus made a face. "It's not..._Sirius_...is it?" Tonks' eyes widened.

"What? Oh, God, no! No, no, no. I mean, I love Sirius and all, but not in that way...er, nope, not Sirius. But the man I'm talking about is in the Order." Enjoying her little game, she smiled as Remus bit his lip, deep in thought.

"Er...Kingsley?" She shook her head. "Haha, Moody...?" She shuddered and shook her head even harder.

"Okay, before you creep me out anymore, I'll give you another hint..." She edged closer to him on the branch, careful not to lose her balance. "He's older. And he used to be a professor..." That one did it. As she crept even closer to him, his eyes widened and by the wandlight, she noticed a pink tinge creeping into his face.

"He's a werewolf..." she was whispering now. "And he's on duty with a certain witch right this very minute..."

"Nymphadora..." She was now sitting right in front of him, their faces only inches apart. "Er--I--" She threw all caution to the wind, grabbed his cloak and pressed her lips to his.

Suddenly panic stricken that she had read his emotions wrong and that he really _wasn't _interested in her, she was about to pull away when he suddenly reacted with such enthusiasm that she was surprised. Caught off guard even though she had been the one to initiate the kiss, she felt herself start to lose balance. She tried to cling to the branch, but it was no use. Letting out a small shriek, she fell to the snow covered ground, bringing Remus with her. As they landed flat on their backs in the snow, Tonks groaned. She rolled over to see Remus sitting up, looking rather dazed. "Well, if the light didn't give away our position, that certainly did," he said, looking mildly amused as he brushed snow from his hair.

"Er...sorry," she said sheepishly. Thankfully, he just laughed.

"Oh, it's alright...it wasn't that far down to the ground anyways..." He glanced at her shyly. "And...er...about what happened before we fell..."

Tonks felt her face start to warm. "Yeah, sorry 'bout that too," she muttered. "I shouldn't have--"

"Wait, what are you apologizing for?" he asked, looking confused. "No, I'm not complaining--" he blushed and Tonks smiled, "it's just...uh...do you really...you know...?"

"Fancy you?" Tonks finished. "Yeah, I do. Why do you think I kissed you?"

"Oh, I don't know," he muttered, staring down at his legs. They were still sitting in the snow, and Tonks could start to feel it melting through her cloak and soaking her clothes underneath. Still, she felt no desire to get up. "Er, anyway, Nymphadora...I've been wanting to ask you for a while now, but I never could work up the courage, and now that I know...um, anyway, would you like to go to lunch or something with me sometime?" he finished quickly. "I mean, if you don't want to, I can understand, but I just thought it would be nice to perhaps go out to dinner somewhere. Of course, it wouldn't be fancy or anything, with my budget, but--"

"Yes," she said, cutting off his rambling. He stared at her.

"What?"

"Yes," she replied, smiling. "I would like to go on a date with you." Inside, she was glowing. She had thought that this time would never come.

Remus had obviously expected her to say no, and was looking dumbstruck. "Well, I...ah...that settles it, then," he said, looking surprised but rather pleased. Smiling slightly, he glanced at his watch. "Time to go, I think..." With a groan, he stood up, then helped a grinning Tonks up.

"Wait," she said as he started to turn around again. He faced her.

"Yes?" She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him again, this time much longer, as they were standing on solid ground. She still couldn't believe that this was finally happening, that she was finally kissing Remus Lupin. After imagining this moment for so long, she wasn't surprised to realize that kissing him was better than she had imagined. She was just about to surface for air when they both heard a loud pop. They pulled away from each other quickly, but they both stayed close as they grabbed their wands and extinguished the light. "That was definitely someone apparating," he whispered in her ear. She nodded, eyes wide, her heart thumping in fear. They stood motionless for a few seconds, unsure of what to do, when suddenly, a light flared up just feet away from him. Tonks stiffened, but then relaxed when she saw that it was Moody.

"Mad-Eye!" she said, laughing in relief. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm taking over your position," he growled. "It's still early, you never know if they'll turn up later..." Tonks rolled her eyes at Moody's paranoia. "I saw that," he snapped. "And what were you two _thinking_, lighting your wands like that?"

"Er...well, we knew we had to leave soon, so we thought we might as well--"

"Shut it, Lupin," Moody replied, now rolling his own eyes. Tonks shuddered as his magical eye spun in it's socket. She suddenly wondered if Moody had caught them kissing, and she prayed that he hadn't, or else there would be hell to pay. "I'll excuse you two..._this time,_" he added as Tonks sighed in relief. "Now get going." They obliged gladly, walking a short ways into the trees and, with one final glance at each other, they each turned on the spot and apparated back to Grimmauld Place.

Landing on the doorstep simultaneously, they both glanced at each other. "That was close," she said. Remus laughed.

"Yeah, I was afraid for my life there for a moment--"

"_Your _life, think about the crap I'm going to have to take about _constant vigilance_ and all that later--"

"Oh well, we're home now, having escaped from Moody's clutch--" Continuing to take jabs at Moody cheerfully, they opened the door and stepped inside.

"Watch the umbrella stand," Remus said, taking her arm and pulling her out of the way just in time. She just smiled and followed him down to the kitchen. Sirius wasn't there, and Tonks assumed that he was upstairs somewhere.

"Do you want some tea or something? Something hot?" Remus offered, tapping the kettle with his wand.

"Hot chocolate?" She asked, now feeling the effects of the snow soaked into her clothes. It had started to soak through her undergarments, too, so now she was thoroughly uncomfortable. Taking her wand, she started to use a drying spell to siphon the moisture out of her clothes. As she did so, a jet of hot air burst out of her wand, and somehow, the edge of her cloak caught on fire. "Bollocks," she muttered, quickly putting it out. She saw Remus trying not to laugh as he got out two mugs and some packets of cocoa. She sighed and sat down in one of the kitchen chairs, now repeating the drying charm successfully. As steam rose off of her soaking garments, she turned to him as he sat down across from her, waiting for the water to boil.

"So that was an interesting stake-out," she said, and he nodded.

"One of the better ones, wouldn't you think?" he added, and she blushed.

"You do know, if Sirius finds out about what happened, we're dead."

He smiled sneakily. "Well, we didn't have stake-out sex, so as long as he knows that, he'll be okay, I think." Tonks stared at him, dumbstruck.

"How did you--?"

"I heard your conversation," he admitted, glancing at her apologetically. "I didn't _mean _to, but you two were just talking so _loud_--" She gave him a small smack on the arm.

"You _git_," she said, although she was smiling. "Here I was, thinking I was freaking you out by admitting everything to you and kissing you like that, I was mortified when I thought that you didn't--but you--and I--but you _knew _the whole time!"

He grinned sheepishly. "Sorry," he said. She rolled her eyes as the kettle started to whistle. As he got up and headed over to the stove, she had an idea. Quickly, she pulled out her wand and managed to give it a little upwards flick before he returned to the table. As he came around to her side to pour the water in her mug, she stood up. He gave her a quizzical look, and she pointed to the sprig of festive plant that was now hanging from the chandelier. "Mistletoe," she said simply. He looked up, then looked back down at her and smiled.

"Wonder how that got there," he murmured before their lips met for the third time that evening. Tonks breathed deeply, taking in his scent of chocolate, evergreen and soap. It was an odd combination, but she loved it all the same. She sighed as he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer. Running her fingers through his hair, she deepened the kiss, the cocoa forgotten on the table. They had been going at it for a good few minutes when suddenly, they heard footsteps and a surprised noise. Pulling away, Tonks was horrified to see Sirius standing there.

"I--uh--wow...about bloody time!" he exclaimed. Tonks and Remus cringed, still holding onto each other. Sirius stood there for a few more awkward moments, looking dumbfounded yet gleeful. "Er...well, I'll leave you two to it, then. Don't let me interrupt. Have fun." He backed quickly out of the kitchen, shutting the door firmly behind him. Tonks sighed, finally relinquishing her hold on Remus.

"How come we can never have a good snog without anyone barging in?" she said, frustrated and at the same time mortified and dreading talking with Sirius later.

"Well, he's probably gone back upstairs now," Remus said with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "There's no one to interrupt us now..." Tonks grinned at him.

"I suppose you're right," she said, and for the millionth time that evening since the stake-out she wondered how lucky she could have been to have fallen for this man.

**A/N There you go, I hoped you liked it! I rather enjoyed this chapter and had fun writing it, but I'm more interested in what YOU guys think, so review!! And I'm so, so sorry that it took so long to continue this--over a month! But even though the updates will be rather spread apart for a while, but I will NOT stop the story, no matter what! Please review, and tell me what you think! And happy holidays to all of my readers, even if yours has passed already or if you don't celebrate any...anyways, I hope you enjoyed it! **


	17. Plans

Wow, yet again I've taken forever to update...I'm sorry!! Now, I know we really don't need an extra chapter like this in here, but I swear, I'll really get moving with the plot after this one...and I'll try to stick to certain aspects of the plot, too. But even though this story may end up kinda long, I hope you all like it anyway! Oh, and thank you for all the lovely reviews, that's the most I've gotten at one time in a while...each and every one of them was great! Anyway, on with the story!

Chapter 17

After a little while, Tonks decided to go up to bed. After bidding Remus goodnight with a small kiss and a shy smile, she headed up the stairs. As Sirius had headed back up to his room a while ago, she hoped that he was asleep and that she could avoid his prying until morning. As usual, this was just plain optimistic. As she opened the door to her room and collapsed on her bed, she only had to wait a few minutes until her cousin's head poked through the doorway. She groaned.

"You know I couldn't have just let you go to bed without talking to me, right?" he asked, grinning. She closed her eyes in exasperation and leaned back against her pillows.

"There's nothing to talk about, Sirius." He gaped at her.

"Nothing to--? Tonks, I walked in on you and my best mate snogging in the kitchen! That is _definitely _something to talk about! What, may I ask, happened at that stake-out of yours?"

She shrugged, opening her eyes. "Nothing. We sat in a tree, no one came, Mad-Eye took over our position, we left. That's it. No big deal." She felt the mattress depress slightly as Sirius sat down heavily, still grinning at her.

"Well, however it happened, congratulations, little cousin. I thought you guys would never get to it!" Tonks sighed.

"Can I please go to bed?" Sirius shook his head.

"Not until I'm done with you. Did Remus...er...well, did he ask you on a date?"

"As a matter of fact, he did," Tonks replied, trying and failing to keep from beaming. Sirius looked relieved.

"About time. He's been wanting to do that for ages, you know. Kept asking me advice. Like I'd know. Last time I asked a girl out was...well, a long time ago. I told him that he should just go for it, that you fancied him just as much as he fancied you, but I don't think he believed me. Did you kiss him or did he kiss you?"

Tonks blushed. "I kissed him." Sirius whistled.

"Well, good job. Glad you two finally got to it, then." He got up and headed toward the door. Tonks sighed in relief, glad that the interrogation was over. Sirius paused on the threshold. "Just so you know, Tonks, you have no idea how happy you make him. I mean, just being around you makes him happy, but when you went to your room, Remus came up just after you, and when I greeted him, he was practically glowing. I haven't seen him this happy since we were young, in Hogwarts. Just thought you might want to know." He gave her a small wave, then bounded down the hall and into his own room, where she heard his door shut. Tonks smiled, touched to know about how much Remus seemed to care for her. Sighing happily, she laid her head down and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

Tonks awoke the next morning to darkness. Looking out of the window, she saw that another storm seemed to be on its way. Not that she minded; she rather appreciated the snow, especially since last night, and it gave her an excuse to stay in the house with Remus and Sirius all day. Sighing, she quickly pulled on her favorite pair of jeans and one of her many Clash shirts, and headed downstairs. 

She entered the kitchen to see Sirius reading the paper at the table, and Remus at the stove, looking rather frustrated. "Morning," she greeted cheerfully. Sirius looked up from the crossword.

"Finally," he said, grinning. "We were wondering when you were going to make an appearance."

She frowned and glanced at her watch. "It's only quarter to ten, Sirius."

"Yes, well, Remus and I are early risers...usually..." He was cut off by a muttered curse on Remus' behalf. "How's breakfast going, Moony?"

"How do you THINK it's going?" Remus snapped, turning around. "Oh, hello, Nymphadora." He gave her a quick smile and then turned his attention back to the stove. Tonks took a seat across from Sirius.

"I thought he couldn't cook?" she asked quietly, trying not to let Remus hear. Sirius grinned.

"He can't, but it's amusing to watch. He didn't want to make breakfast, but I asked him to because I didn't feel like it. I think I may have to rescue the omelette, though," he said with a sad sigh, glancing at the black lump in the frying pan. They both watched as Remus poked frantically at it with his wand, seemingly willing it to miraculously turn edible again. When smoke started to cloud the air, he sighed and walked away in defeat.

"There, you've had your laugh. Now it's your turn," he said sourly to Sirius. Sirius stifled a snort and headed over to the stove to resurrect the breakfast. "How are you?" he asked, turning to Tonks, and using an entirely different tone.

"Good, thanks," she said, beaming at him. There was a small pause. "So..."

"So..."

"Are the kids coming home for break?" Tonks asked. Remus shrugged.

"Not sure. Maybe...for Sirius' sake, I hope so. He'd love to see Harry again...it would cheer him up, don't you think?"

"Oh, yeah," she agreed.

"But in the meantime..." he lowered his voice. "How is Friday night? Would you like to come to dinner?"

"Ooh, yes," she said enthusiastically. "What time?"

"I dunno, maybe around--" he cut off abruptly as Sirius looked over with a suspicious look on his face.

"What are you two lovebirds doing?"

Flushing slightly, Tonks rolled her eyes. "Talking. Is that okay with you?"

Sirius chuckled. "Fine, sorry, sorry, continue..."

"Anyways, I was thinking maybe around seven...just so you know, it's nothing fancy, maybe a pub somewhere...sorry I can't do more," he continued, making sure to lower his voice even more this time.

"Oh, Remus, you know I don't mind. I'm more of a pub girl anyway. So that's settled then." She beamed at him as he smiled back, looking slightly embarrassed yet pleased. Sirius came over and dropped a plate full of omelette, toast and bacon in front of them.

"Dig in," he said, taking a large bite of his own. Tonks gladly started to devour her food, thinking about her Friday night plans. She would have to think about telling Allegria about this...sometimes the girl scared her.

Finishing her breakfast, she got up and waved at the two men. "Well, I'll be up in my room," she said cheerfully. "See you guys later!" With that, she left the kitchen. As she left, she heard Sirius start in in Remus.

"So...what exactly happened last night?"

**A/N Okay, I swear, that was the last useless chapter. The next one will be when Arthur is attacked by the snake. Sadly, I cannot find my book...OOTP is the ONE BOOK I NEED, yet I can't find it ANYWHERE! And no, that's not an excuse, but it would be sort of useful...:) Anyway, please review!**


	18. The Date and the Snake

Here's the next chapter! And no, I still haven't found my book--I have NO idea where it could be! Thank you all for the lovely reviews, some of which wished me luck in finding the book (haha, I'll need it, I'm a downright slob, so it could probably be anywhere). Oh, and by the way, I've found a place for Allegria, because I wanted to include her a bit in this chapter...I was going to make her a Healer, but she's a fellow Auror of Tonks. Just so everyone knows. And sorry for such a long wait!

Chapter 18

Tonks entered work the next day humming loudly. As she entered her cubicle, she couldn't help but smile. Today was her date with Remus, and she couldn't be happier. She couldn't remember the last time she had been this excited. She was almost positive that she wouldn't be able to concentrate on her paperwork today, but she would give it a brave try, for Moody's sake, as she was feeling extra kind and generous today.

She popped in a CD and turned the volume up all the way. As the sounds of the Clash's first album blasted through her cubicle, many heads popped up around her. She had forgotten to silence her space. "Oops, sorry!" she cried gleefully, performing the charm as her coworkers rolled their eyes and continued with their work. Just as she sat down, she felt someone tap her on the shoulder. She turned around to see Allegria wave at her. She quickly grabbed her remote and turned the volume down. "Hi," she said cheerfully, a huge grin blossoming over her face.

"Hey," Allegria replied, perching on the edge of the desk. "Just came in to see how you were today...I haven't had a chance to stop by in a while, sorry."

Tonks shrugged. "It's okay, I've been busy too..." she spun around in her chair, unable to hold back her excitement any longer. "Hey, Ally, you remember that guy that stopped by a little while ago? Remus Lupin?"

"Yeah, what about him?"

"Well, tonight, me and him...er...well, him and I are going out--"

_"On a date?"_ Allegria screeched loudly. Tonks winced as she covered her ears. Sometimes Allegria could get a bit overexcited.

"Sorry, sorry, it's just that...ooh, Tonks, I'm so happy for you! Where are you guys going?"

"Well, he has sort of a...low budget, I guess, so we're probably going to a pub someplace, but I told him I preferred that a lot more than a fancy dinner in an elegant restaurant where I would disgust everyone with my manners and break everything."

"Ooh," her friend replied, looking thrilled. "What are you wearing?"

"Well...I was thinking I'd just wear this," Tonks said, gesturing to her current outfit. Allegria's eyebrows knit together slightly as she scrutinized Tonks' outfit. Tonks waited patiently, knowing that Allegria took a long time to find an opinion about what was good and what was not. Her friend shrugged at Tonks' rather worn out Combat Rock t-shirt, winced slightly at her ripped jeans and lime green hi-tops, and cringed outwardly as she fingered one of the many buttons covering Tonks' jacket, a yellow Sex Pistols pin, right next to the one bearing the legend, _Make love, not war!_

"It's...well...not exactly my style, but you're you, and if he likes it..." Tonks grinned, looking at Allegria's perfect makeup, crisp white dress shirt and high heels, coupled with navy slacks. Not her style, indeed.

"I don't think he takes particular offense at any of it, no...so does that mean I'm good to go?"

"I dunno...maybe a skirt..." Tonks cringed.

"Oh, no!" she cried. "I always fall and then everyone gets a nice view of my underwear--"

"He would like that, then," Allegria said, narrowing her eyes, still observing Tonks. "You could wear one of the ones you own...one of those plaid ones, maybe?...No...maybe the jeans would be okay, actually...but the green shoes, I'm not sure of."

"Well, I was thinking maybe of wearing my combat boots--" Allegria sighed.

"Nah, the shoes are good. You're not going to listen to anything I suggest anyway." Tonks grinned sheepishly. "He sounds like the guy who loves you for who you are, so...just be yourself." She glanced at her watch. "I'd better get back to work, sweetie. See you later. Good luck, and tell me how it went! And just remember that you're beautiful, no matter what, and if he doesn't see that, he's not worth it." She gave Tonks a quick hug, and her nostrils filled with the soft, sweet smell of Allegria's perfume. "Love ya, sweetie." With a big grin and a wave, she flounced out of the cubicle.

Smiling, Tonks settled back down in her chair, ready to tackle some work, hoping that maybe if she got some extra done, she could go home early. She felt like a teenage girl again; Allegria hadn't helped, since she still acted like a teenage girl, especially when the topic came to clothes or men--but Tonks decided that maybe the feeling wasn't so bad after all. It made her feel happier than she had in a while.

By five o'clock, Tonks had successfully finished her paperwork. She proudly marched to Moody's office and shoved the stack into his hands. She was a bit miffed to see the surprised look on his face when he realized that it was, in fact, all finished. "Well done, Tonks," he said gruffly, seeming like he really didn't want to admit it. She gave him a smug smile.

"Can I leave?" she said, not so much asking permission as just pretending to ask. He rolled his eyes and gave a little jerk of the head. "Thanks so much, Mad-Eye!" she said gleefully, racing back to her cubicle and gathering her things. Just a few minutes later, she was in the hallway of Grimmauld Place. She ran down to the kitchen to find Sirius and Molly arguing about something or another. Making a face, Tonks tried to creep away before either of them saw her, but was foiled yet again by her clumsiness. In her hurry to get away from what was probably going to end up as a huge row, her foot caught on a chair, and she ended up on the floor, along with the chair, and somehow, two other chairs. Molly and Sirius looked over, startled out of their fight.

"Tonks!" Sirius said, seeming relieved. "Here, I've got that--" As she picked herself up off the floor, he picked up all three chairs that she had brought down with her. Molly rushed over, looking vaguely upset about something.

"Hello, dear, are you okay?" she asked, brushing Tonks off.

"I'm fine, Molly. Thanks. Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt--what were you guys arguing about?"

"Oh, nothing for you to worry about, dear, just discussing Harry's wellbeing--" Molly replied, shooting a scathing look in Sirius' direction before turning back to Tonks with a sweet smile. "So, dear, I hear that you and Remus have big plans for tonight."

Tonks gaped. "But--how could you--" she turned to Sirius, who was smirking at her. "You! But how did _you _know?"

"I heard you two talking," Sirius said, shrugging. "You guys were trying to be quiet, but not quiet enough for Sirius Black!" Tonks groaned.

"Could you stop butting into our relationship?" she asked, though she was more exasperated than angry. Sirius shrugged again.

"When it gets sexual, sure, I'll leave you guys alone--don't want to get involved in _that_--" he cut off abruptly as Molly glared at him. "Er, right. I'll be...scrubbing...something." He wandered away towards the stairs, shooting another grin in Tonks' direction. Molly headed toward the cupboard, where she started taking out various pots and pans in preparation for that evening's dinner.

"Just going to whip up a little something for whoever stops by--I know that you and Remus will be gone, though, dear--I believe he's went back to his flat for a little while, if you're wondering where he is..." She started to charm ingredients with her wand so that they flew into the pot. Tonks, having nothing better to do, sat down at the table, not even bothering to ask about helping because she knew what the answer would be--Molly was now wary of Tonks whenever she volunteered to help cook.

"I remember my first date..." Molly said dreamily. "It was with Arthur, actually...oh, he was adorable back then, we went into Hogsmeade and he bought me a bag of my favorite candy..." As Molly started to reminisce with glazed eyes about sherbert balls and nougat candies, Tonks' thoughts drifted. She was surprisingly starting to become nervous about that night. What if something didn't work out? What if he suddenly saw her disgusting and repulsive, or simply too child-like? She swallowed hard. She wanted this date to work out more than any other date she had ever been on in her life.

"...and missed, accidentally hitting Matilda Bledger in the face! Oh, the hair that sprouted from her nostrils...it was curly and green, can you believe it? Oh, I almost died from laughing..." Tonks' eyes widened, wondering if Molly was still talking about her first date. Deciding it was best to leave her to herself, Tonks stood up.

"Well, Molly, I'll be heading upstairs now, if you don't mind." Molly jumped and stared at her, seeming surprised that there was anyone else in the kitchen.

"Of course, dear...if I don't see you before you leave, good luck and have fun...give my regards to Remus!"

"I will, Molly, thanks," Tonks called as she sprang up the stairs, up the next flight of stairs and finally reached her room. She caught sight of herself in the mirror and squinted at her reflection, deciding that cherry red hair didn't really work for her. Changing it to green to match her shoes, she blinked. _We don't want to blind the poor bloke,_ she thought, quickly changing it back to her regular pink. She knew that Remus liked pink, but she wanted to try something different. After testing several different shades, including one very interesting peach-pink shade, she settled on dark blue with one lone pink streak underneath. She then set off on the task of her eyes. Although she sometimes kept her eyes in their normal hazel color, she often liked to switch it up a bit. She shuddered as she used bright red, deciding that she probably should just stay away from red from there on out. She finally decided on a deep turquoise that went with her hair. Lengthening her hair just a bit until she could pull it into a small ponytail, leaving some hair hanging down to frame her face, she took one final look at herself before she was startled by a knock on her door.

"Come in," she called. She was surprised when the door opened and Remus stepped in. She glanced at her clock and was shocked to see that it was already quarter to seven, the time that they had agreed on the night before. She walked over to him and threw her arms around his neck, squeezing him into a large hug. "It's nice to see you," she mumbled into his shoulder before drawing back to plant a large kiss on his lips.

A few seconds later, he pulled away. "Not that I mind this greeting, but I just wanted to be able to say hello to you, too," he said, chuckling. Tonks blushed and took a few steps back, although she was grinning. He looked at her. "You look amazing," he said.

"Really?" she asked. "My friend...well, you met her, Allegria...she was a bit skeptical...said you might not like the buttons..." He laughed, a sound that thrilled her.

"You look great, no matter what." Tonks beamed, thinking of what Allegria had said about Remus not being worth it if he didn't see her as who she was.

"Thanks. You look nice, too."

"Thanks." He gave her an embarrassed smile, followed by an awkward pause. Tonks felt as if she was going out on her very first date again.

"So...ready to get going?" Remus said, breaking the silence.

"I'm always ready," she replied brightly. Looking a little less nervous, Remus smiled at her, and they headed out the door. On their way down the stairs, they passed Sirius. Surprisingly, he said nothing embarrassing.

"You two have a nice time tonight," he said, giving them a genuine smile. Tonks raised her eyebrows but smiled, and Remus looked even more taken-aback as he replied with a quick "Thanks." As they reached the hallway, though, Tonks could have sworn she heard a stifled snigger.

As they left Grimmauld, Remus led her out of the square. "It's not too far, so I hope you don't mind walking," he said.

"That was nice of Sirius, wasn't it? Do you think he's planning something?"

"Oh, yes," Remus said without a moment of hesitation. "I've been friends with him long enough to recognize a well hidden Sirius smirk when I see one."

"So he wasn't smiling, then."

"Oh, he was smiling, alright, but there was just a hint of evil in it." Tonks snorted as they continued walking. She gave a little shiver.

"Sorry, I know it's cold. Should've known better than to have you walk, it's December, but..."

"It's fine, Remus," she replied, giving him a reassuring smile. "So, where's this place we're headed to, then?"

"Well, there's this little Muggle pub right in the village here that is very good. Very friendly, too. You'll probably like it, they serve just about anything. I hope you're hungry."

Almost right on cue, Tonks' stomach growled loudly. "Er...yeah," she said unnecessarily as Remus laughed. A few minutes later, they found themselves entering a small pub in the nearby Muggle village. The moment they walked in, Tonks liked it. It was very warm and cozy, with a rather old fashioned feel. There was a large fire roaring in the corner, and Remus lead her to the table closest to the fire. He motioned for her to sit as he took her cloak for her. She couldn't help but grin at his gentlemanly behavior. As they got settled, she glanced around the room.

"Cozy little place," she said cheerfully. Remus smiled, apparently glad that she liked it.

"Well, I was going to bring you to Hogsmeade, but...well, sometimes it's nice to go to a place where...where I'm rather anonymous."

Tonks suddenly realized that he probably attracted a lot of bad attention whenever he was in a popular wizarding spot. She tried to think of something comforting to say, but nothing would come. Instead, she cleared her throat and changed the subject.

"So, what did you think of Snape's report the other day?" He snorted.

"I didn't hear anything the whole time because I couldn't stop staring at the sign that Sirius had attached to his back. You know, the rather explicit spin off of the 'kick me' sign."

"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot about that. I couldn't tell if Dumbledore noticed and just decided to ignore it or didn't see it at all. The rest of the Order noticed it, though, everyone got a big kick out of that." He laughed. They spent a few more minutes terrorizing Snape, both of them taking great delight in the subject. As they got their food, they switched over to subjects such as work, the news, and (Tonks couldn't believe that they were actually having a genuine conversation about it) the weather. About two hours later, they finished up their dessert, a shared ice cream, and Tonks leaned back into her chair heavily, extremely full.

"I had fun, Remus, thanks for everything."

He blushed slightly. "No problem. I had fun, too." As the time came to pay, he pulled out his wallet and shot Tonks a glance when she started rummaging in her pocket for some money.

"I can pay," he said politely.

"Remus, please. I ate like a pig. I ate at least twice as much as you did. At least let me pay for the drinks."

After a short tussle, he agreed to let her pay for the drinks and the dessert. They quietly left the pub and strolled down the lane, Tonks huddling close to Remus.

"So..."

"Well, I would suggest we would do something else, but it's rather cold, and there's really nothing left to do."

"I would settle for talking over some hot chocolate back in Grimmauld," she suggested, shivering. He nodded, smiling.

"Alright, then. Let's head back."

After a few minutes, they arrived back at the headquarters. Quietly letting themselves in, they headed downstairs to the kitchen where they found Sirius pacing, looking distressed.

"What's wrong?" Remus said immediately. Sirius glanced up at the two of them.

"It's Arthur. He was...on duty, and he was attacked by a...by a snake of some sort."

"Is it serious?" Tonks said urgently.

Sirius swallowed, and nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, it's serious."

**A/N Halfway through this chapter I found the book again! Woo! Anyway, please review to tell me what you think, I hope you liked it!**


	19. Sleepover

So, I finally found the book! In a closet (I don't know how it got there). But I am rejoicing! Anyway, thanks for all the reviews...I really have nothing else to say, so here's the next chapter! Oh, and I just noticed that Phineas didn't actually tell Sirius that Arthur had been attacked by a snake, but that's what Sirius said in the last chapter, even though at that point, he didn't know exactly what had happened to Arthur. But, I figured that was a rather small detail, so please overlook that:)

Chapter 19

Tonks sat down heavily at the table, staring at Sirius, who had started to pace again. She heard Remus sit down beside her and put a warm hand on her shoulder.

"Nymphadora, are you okay?" he asked. She gave a small jerk of the head. She couldn't believe it; she loved Arthur like a second father, and she had only known him for a few months!

"Does Molly know?" she ask in a strangled voice. Sirius nodded, looking at her with concern.

"Yeah, she's heading over to St. Mungo's right now. Listen, Tonks...there's a chance he'll be okay, but...there's also a good chance that he might not make it."

Tonks shuddered as she felt tears well up in her eyes. If this was how she felt, she couldn't even imagine how Molly felt, or how the kids felt, if they knew. _The kids._ "Do his kids know?" she asked quickly. Sirius shrugged.

"I think so, they're actually heading over here soon...Phineas Nigellus came, he has a portrait in this house and one in Dumbledore's office, he came with a message from Dumbledore."

"Sirius...do you need any help with the kids, or would you mind if I went home for a bit?" she asked, quickly wiping her eyes. Remus must have noticed she was crying, because he immediately wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer. Sirius saw this and gave the slightest, yet strained, smile.

"No, go home and get some rest. We may need your help later." Tonks nodded and stood up.

"Do you want me to come?" Remus asked in a low voice.

"Yeah, if you don't mind...unless Sirius wants help..."

"No, go with her," Sirius said. "We might need your help later, too, Remus. You two just go home and rest for now...the kids and I will be fine."

"Alright then. See you later, Sirius," he said. Tonks gave a small, miserable wave, and a few seconds later she had Apparated them both back to her flat.

"Sorry, it's just...I just wanted to get my mind off things, I guess," Tonks said, plopping down on the furry, lime green couch. Remus looked at it with slight apprehension before sitting down lightly on it. She couldn't help but give a small giggle at the look on his face. "You can sit back, Remus, it's not going to eat you."

He smiled and leaned back into the couch. She shifted so that she was half sitting in his lap, with her head leaning on his shoulder. He tensed slightly before relaxing and wrapping an arm around her waist. "Want to watch some tv?" she asked.

"Er--I've heard of it, but I've never really--I don't know."

"Let's just flip around for something. I just need something to take my mind off of things." She grabbed the remote and started flipping through the channels. Finally settling on an old sitcom, she set the remote down.

They sat in silence for a while, neither of them really watching, both of them thinking about the attack on Arthur. Tonks wondered how he was doing, and if he was even still alive. She hoped that Molly was coping with everything okay.

After about half an hour, she grabbed the remote and flipped the tv off. "Sorry, I hope you weren't watching," she said.

"No, not really. I was just thinking."

"Yeah, me too. Look, it's late...do you want to spend the night?"

"Er--"

"I've got a couch, Remus, as you can see. It's okay," she said, smiling.

"Alright, then."

She sighed and slowly got up. "I guess I'll be heading to bed, then," she said, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. "I'll go get you a blanket."

She trotted into her room and grabbed the pink comforter from her bed and dragged it into the living room. "Here, this should do," she said, dropping it onto the couch. Remus glanced at it curiously.

"It makes your couch look like a huge watermelon." She laughed.

"Well, goodnight, Remus. Thanks for everything tonight, even though...even though it didn't end so well. But I had a lot of fun, really. It was great. Maybe...maybe we could do it again sometime?" She added the last part quietly, glancing shyly at him. He grinned.

"I had lots of fun, too. I would also like to do it again. Well, goodnight, Nymphadora. Get some rest. Tomorrow, we're probably going to go sort out a lot of stuff for the Order. We'll probably be visiting Arthur, too."

"Alright. See you in the morning." She gave him a quick smile, then headed into her bedroom, where she quickly got dressed in an oversized t-shirt and a tiny pair of shorts, then collapsed onto the bed, turning out the lights.

Seconds went by, then minutes, as Tonks watched the clock on her bedside stand tick away. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't fall asleep. She glanced at the clock again. Two o'clock. She wondered if Remus would mind if she came out there, and decided that he would probably be too sleepy to protest. Dragging herself out of bed, she tiptoed quietly into the pitch black living room, where she could hear Remus' deep breathing. Feeling her way to the couch, she quietly laid down in front of him, and felt him stir.

"Nymphadora?" he murmured.

"Sorry, did I wake you up?" she whispered, not really sorry at all.

"No--it's just--is everything okay?" He sounded worried now.

"Everything's fine. I couldn't sleep. Do you mind if I sleep here?"

"No, no, 'course not..." she could tell that he was drifting asleep again. She huddled closer to him, and she felt him wrap an arm around her waist. His hand rested gently on her belly, and she covered his hand with hers as she pulled the comforter over the both of them.

"Goodnight," she whispered. He was already asleep. She, too, soon fell into a deep sleep filled with dreams of snakes, big and small.

**A/N This might be a little short, but I'm probably going to start working on the next one soon. I hope everyone liked it, and please review if you can!**


	20. Good news and some microwaveable waffles

Finally, another update! First of all, I'm so, so sorry that it's taken so long for me to update--things have been nuts for me, and I'm still going to be busy for a while. So I'm also sorry to say that I'm not sure the next time I'll be able to update is. I hate making excuses, but my updates may be worse than they have been. I'm sorry for that. On a happier note, thanks for all of the great reviews, and here's the next chapter! By the way, does anyone know about if you're flooing someone, and someone else is in the same room as you, can they hear you if you're head is in the flames? Just wondering...!

Chapter 20

Both Tonks and Remus were awakened abruptly the next morning by a shrill, piercing scream. They both sat up quickly, and Tonks nearly fell off of the couch.

"What in Merlin's name is that noise?" Remus yelled, covering his ears. Tonks winced.

"I have absolutely no--" All of a sudden, her eyes widened with recognition. "Oh!" She leapt from the couch, ran into the bedroom, and turned off her alarm clock. She came back out into the living to see Remus still sitting on the couch, hair tousled, a look on his face similar to a deer caught in headlights. "Sorry, I forgot to turn off my alarm last night," she said sheepishly.

"What--what is your alarm supposed to _be_?" he asked, rubbing the back of his head.

"A banshee," she said cheerfully. "S'only thing that'll wake me up, really. Now how about some breakfast?"

"Sounds good," he mumbled, pushing himself off the couch. "I can make something--"

"No, it's okay," she said a little too quickly. He stared at her. "I'm--I'm not insulting your cooking abilities, Remus, I mean, I'm no cook myself, I just have some waffles that we can pop into the microwave--" she stopped babbling when she saw that he was grinning.

"It's fine," he said, chuckling. "I take pride in my ability to make any kind of food inedible. So...how's this microwave work?" She laughed as she led him into the kitchen, explaining the wonders of a microwave. As she put the waffles in and pressed the button, Remus watched it, wide-eyed. His sincere fascination with the object made her think of Arthur, and she was immediately reminded of the news that they had received the night before. She sighed, turning to Remus.

"Do you think he'll be alright?" she asked softly. He tore his eyes from the microwave and gave her a reassuring smile.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," he said, although his voice wavered slightly. "We can floo Sirius after breakfast, if you would like."

"Sounds good," she agreed, removing the waffles from the beeping microwave. She threw a couple onto a plate and handed it to him. "Hang on, I'll grab some syrup--"

"Amazing," he said, staring at the waffles. "That machine--that microwave--"

Tonks laughed again. "Honestly, from hearing you talk, it would be impossible to know that you were a professor."

"Well, I wasn't a Muggle Studies professor!" he said defensively, although he was smiling as he took the bottle of syrup from her. They headed into the living room and sat back on the couch, eating their waffles.

"So..." Tonks mumbled, her mouth full of waffle, "Speaking of being a professor, tell me about it."

"I loved it," Remus said enthusiastically. "The students were all great. The best lesson was probably the boggart lesson. I had Neville demonstrate for us, and the class was presented with a wonderful view of Snape in drag."

Tonks burst out laughing, almost spitting out her food. "Oh my god, I wish I could've seen that!" she said excitedly. "What was he wearing?"

"All I really remember was a bright red handbag and a...and a..." Remus was also starting to lose it.

"And a what?"

"And a hat with a stuffed vulture on top," he choked out. Tonks doubled over, laughing hard. When they both finally calmed down, Tonks leaned back against him.

"You sound like you were a great teacher," she said honestly. "From what I've heard kids say about you, you were a favorite." She looked up and saw that he looked flattered.

"I enjoyed it a lot, is all," he said modestly. "I wish I could've kept it..." he sighed, picking at the remains of his breakfast. Not wishing to continue this more depressing branch of conversation, yet wondering how he had lost his job as he hadn't told her yet, she tentatively asked, "How did you lose it?"

As he stiffened, she immediately regretted it. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have--"

"Snape _accidentally _told the students that I was a werewolf," he said shortly. "I resigned in order to escape the complaints that undoubtedly would have come if I had kept my post as a professor."

"Remus, I'm sorry," she said sympathetically. "Snape's a slimy old git. I have no idea why Dumbledore trusts him. I certainly don't," she added hotly. She felt genuinely mad on Remus' behalf. Why Snape had to be so hateful, she had no idea.

"Why does Snape hate you and Sirius so much?" she asked, wondering yet again whether this was territory that she shouldn't have ventured into.

"When we were in Hogwarts," Remus started softly, "Sirius played a joke on him. To make a long story short, he lured him through the tunnel under the Weeping Willow--that was built for my sake, if you didn't know--and into the Shrieking Shack, where I was transformed. Snape...Snape could've been killed, and he never let us forget it."

"Sirius is such a stupid prat!" she exploded.

"He gets...carried away with himself sometimes," Remus said gently. "But he's really a good man. Speaking of Sirius, would you like to Floo him and ask how Arthur's doing?"

"Yeah," she said, hopping off the couch and taking both of their plates and setting them onto a side table. She headed over to the fire and grabbed a pinch of Floo powder from a lime green coffee mug. She threw it into the fire, yelling Sirius' address, and stuck her head into the emerald-green flames.

After her head stopped spinning, she looked into the kitchen of 12 Grimmauld Place to see Sirius sleeping at the table. Feeling slightly guilty, she gave a small shout. He immediately sat up, startled. He started to draw his wand, glancing around, until Tonks drew his attention to the fire place. "It's me, Sirius, Tonks. I'm in the fireplace." Sirius put his wand away, looking relieved.

"Morning, coz," he said sleepily. "I assume you are Flooing for news on Arthur."

"Yeah," she said. On the end of her that was in her flat, she felt Remus kneel beside her, his hand brushing hers.

" Molly came back and said he's faring okay. The kids are asleep now, and they're heading over to St. Mungo's a little later. By the way, Moody dropped by and said that if I saw you, he wanted me to tell you that he needs you to help him accompany the kids to the hospital at about noon. It's ten-thirty now."

"That's fine," she said, relieved that Arthur was okay. Still feeling Remus' presence beside her, she attempted to grab his hand and squeeze it, hoping that he would get the message that things were okay. However, she felt herself grab and squeeze something that felt more like his bottom than his hand. Quickly withdrawing her hand and jumping, she nearly swallowed some ashes. She noticed Sirius staring at her.

"You okay?" he asked, frowning slightly.

"Fine," she said, clearing her throat as she blushed deeply. "Er...thanks for the news. I'll be heading back. See you later, Sirius."

"Bye," he replied, giving her a strange look. The room spun as she pulled her head back into the fireplace and within a few seconds, she was sitting dazedly on the floor of her flat. She looked up to see Remus grinning at her and offering her his hand. She grabbed it and allowed him to pull her up, while covering her face with the other.

"Er...Molly said Arthur's doing okay. I'm due to help Moody transport the kids to St. Mungo's at noon."

"That's good," Remus said, sounding relieved. "So...that out of the way...what were you trying to do there, Nymphadora? I must say, you startled me quite a lot when you squeezed my--"

"I'm sorry," she cried. "I was trying to squeeze your hand to let you know that he was okay, but I...I grabbed the wrong spot." She flushed furiously. Remus kept on grinning.

"Well, at least you squeezed that spot and not another, or we could've had some problems," he said, winking. She gaped at his comment, and as he passed her on her way to the bedroom, she grinned wickedly at her. Smiling widely at his cheek, she headed into the connecting bathroom.

"You can do whatever while I'm in the shower, watch tv or something," she said. "I'll be out in a bit. And by the way..." she gave him a sly smile as he turned around, waiting for her to continue. "You have a rather nice bum, if I may say so myself." She quickly shut the door as she felt herself go hot with embarrassment, but not before seeing the rather flattered look on his face as he chuckled.

A few minutes later, she was out and dressed to go. She entered the living room to see the tv on, but Remus was not watching it. Instead, he was in front of her rather large collection of CDs, and was examining the special collection of vinyl records on top of the shelf.

"I like to find autographed records in old record stores," she explained. He jumped, not hearing her exit the shower. "Just a little hobby, you know...a little thing of interest. Anyways..."

"Yes, it's quarter to twelve, you should be getting to Grimmauld Place," he said, smiling at her.

"Yeah," she agreed. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "I'll be back soon. Maybe we can go visit him later." She threw some Floo powder into the fire and headed to the headquarters.

**A/N Sorry that this was kind of pointless, I really wanted to make it longer, but since I haven't updated in like all of eternity, I just decided to get this out there, even if it is really just a filler chapter, just to give you guys something to read. Anyway, please tell me what you guys think!**


	21. Christmas

**Happy very, very late holidays! Sorry for the super long wait. Thank you all for your great reviews, and thank you very much, Tonks14, since I couldn't respond to your review, I'm very glad that you like it, thank you for reviewing! Okay, here's the chapter!  
**

Tonks entered her apartment with a sigh. She had just gotten back from visiting Arthur, and although she was glad that he was okay, and was happy at a chance to see him, she was exhausted. She entered her kitchen, wondering if Remus would still be there. He had told her that he would probably head home for a while, but she wasn't sure. She found a note on the table in his now-familiar scrawl:

_Nymphadora,_

_I decided to go back to headquarters for a bit. I just needed some rest, and you do, too. I'll probably see you tomorrow, whenever you stop by. I hope that your visit with Arthur went well. See you soon.  
_

_Love,_

_Remus_

_P.S. I made you a sandwich for when you get back. I know you'll be tired, and I had nothing else to do. I also found a couple packets of crisps in your pantry, so I set some out by the sandwich for you. And don't worry, I can handle making sandwiches, as it doesn't involve the stove--it won't poison you._

Her heart nearly skipped a beat when she realized that he had signed his note with 'love'. _Calm down,_ she told herself. _It's just an expression._ But she still couldn't help but smile as she pocketed the note. And sure enough, she found a large sandwich and some crisps waiting for her on the counter. She shook her head, amazed. She still couldn't get over how thoughtful he could be. She carried the plate and a can of soda into her living room, where she settled down on the couch to watch some tv. She flipped around the channels until she found an old muggle movie on one. Settling back and eating her meal, she realized how lonely she felt. She had gotten so used to spending most of her days in headquarters, surrounded by other people. The quiet was kind of nice, but she still looked forward to getting back to Grimmauld Place the next day.

Finishing her sandwich, she set the plate aside. She lay down on the couch, still trying to concentrate on the movie, and eventually fell asleep.

* * *

When Tonks awoke early the next morning, she showered and dressed quickly, then immediately headed over to Grimmauld Place, where she found only Remus and Sirius up and in the kitchen. Remus was drinking tea and seemed like he was in his own world, while Sirius was drinking coffee and doing the puzzles in the paper.

"Wotcher," she said cheerfully, causing them both to jump.

"Morning," Sirius said, smiling warmly at her. "Had a feeling you'd pop by this morning."

"Yeah, well, got pretty bored all on my own," she said, plopping down in the seat next to Remus. "Wotcher, Remus!"

"Hello, Nymphadora," Remus said, smiling pleasantly at her. "Would you like any tea? The water's still hot."

"That's okay. Thanks anyway," she said. She smiled shyly at him, and he grinned back. She turned to see Sirius watching them with a knowing look on his face.

"Erm, anyway..." Remus said, blushing slightly. "I'll be back, I have to go to the bathroom..." Setting his teacup down, he walked out of the room, leaving Sirius and her alone, a situation that she had come to be wary of.

"So..." Sirius said, leaning casually back in his chair. "What'd you get him for Christmas?"

"Christmas?" Tonks replied blankly. Sirius raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah. You know, the holiday. That takes place tomorrow."

"Wait..." she said, her eyes widening slowly. "You mean...wait, today is Christmas Eve?" Sirius nodded, cringing slightly.

"Lose track of the days much, Tonks?" Tonks squeezed her eyes shut in frustration.

"Yes! I lost track of the days, I didn't think Christmas was for another week or so--oh, I didn't get anybody presents--and what am I going to get Remus? I can't ask him what he wants, he'll know I forgot! And he's probably impossible to buy for--what am I going to _do_--"

"Get some of that Santa lingerie that's always around at this time of year," Sirius suggested unhelpfully.

"Lingerie?" she asked incredulously.

"Yeah. Not for _him_, _you_ wear it--he'd enjoy _that_--" he stopped as she scowled at him.

"Seriously, Sirius--" she glared at him again as he snorted--"I have no idea what to get him. What did he get me?"

"I'm not going to tell you that!" Sirius exclaimed. Tonks sighed.

"What does he like?"

"Books, tea, you--"

"Yes, well, anything more meaningful?" she said, frustrated.

"I said _you_. Seriously, I think you should just put on some lingerie, present yourself to him and he'd be happy."

"Is sex all you think about?" she nearly shrieked. Sirius chuckled.

"Calm down, cuz, I'm mostly kidding. It's fun to get you all riled up. But as to what Remus would like, I can't help you there," he said sympathetically. "I mean, I always got him guy stuff. I have no idea what his girlfriend would get him...you're on your own. You'll find something, though." She sighed at his lack of helpfulness, and was just picking up her cloak to head out for some shopping when Remus came back into the kitchen. He looked at her, confused.

"Where are you going?"

"I just have to run some errands," she said, smiling. I'll be back soon, okay?" She pressed a quick kiss to his lips, and was grateful to see Sirius turn his head slightly, averting his eyes. Still, Remus blushed slightly as he gave her hands a quick squeeze.

"Alright then, see you later. Are you coming back here?"

"Yes," she said, pocketing her wand. "Bye, Remus. Bye, Sirius." Both men waved as she made her way out of Grimmauld Place in search of the one person who could always help her out of situations like this. A few minutes later, she was knocking on the door of Allegria's flat. Her friend answered the door in her pajamas, her hair in a sloppy bun.

"Tonks! Well, aren't you up at an ungodly hour! What are you doing here?"

"Sorry, did I wake you up?" Tonks asked apologetically.

"No, it's just that I didn't expect you to be up already...come in, come in...is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine," Tonks assured her. "It's just that I...need some help with some last minute shopping."

"It's not last minute until tomorrow," Allegria said cheerfully, "but of course I'll help you! Who are you shopping for?"

"Well, sort of a couple people," Tonks said, wincing inwardly at her forgetfulness, "but I mostly need to find a good gift for Remus."

"Ooh," said Allegria sympathetically, "men are hard to shop for, aren't they? Well, just give me a few minutes, I'll meet you back out here and we can hit Diagon Alley, okay?" Allegria rushed off into her room and Tonks sat down on the couch to wait. In no more than five minutes, Allegria came out, showered and dressed.

"I still don't know how you do all of that that fast," Tonks said, amazed. "Anyways, let's go."

A little while later, they stood at the entrance of Diagon Alley. Tonks stared at all of the shops, slightly apprehensive.

"Where to?" Allegria asked cheerfully.

"I'll save Remus for last," Tonks said thoughtfully. She and Allegria headed down the narrow alley, popping into a store whenever Tonks saw something that she thought was appropriate. About two hours later, they had purchased a dish set for Molly (to replace some of the ones that Tonks had ruined), a small Muggle radio for Arthur and a book on Muggle habits, a necklace for Andromeda, some movies for Ted (as he loved to watch TV, even though Andromeda often scoffed), a small, working model of the Firebolt for Harry, and lots of candy for all of the children. Tonks had also purchased some things to keep Sirius busy, such as novels and some puzzle books, although she just told Allegria that they were for another friend. Finally, she had to find something for Remus, and she would be done.

"The thing is, I have no idea what he would want!" Tonks vented as she and Allegria strolled down the narrow, crowded alley, peering into each store. "I was thinking of buying him some new clothes...but I don't want to remind him of his money problem. That's one of the issues he has with himself, that and the fact that he's a were..." she fell silent as she was suddenly struck by a thought.

"Allegria...we need to go to the apothecary!"

"You're getting him potion stuff?" she replied, crinkling her nose. "Doesn't that kind of...suck as a gift?"

"Just shut up and come along," Tonks said hurriedly, rushing along to find the store. She finally found the small shop, tucked into a dark space, overshadowed by the two larger shops on either side of it. She entered cautiously, Allegria following her, still slightly confused.

"What are we doing here?" Allegria asked quietly. Tonks took a deep breath and turned to her.

"Look, Allegria, I didn't mention this before, but Remus has sort of a...condition." She paused, unsure of how her friend would take this. "He's a werewolf."

Allegria looked shocked for a minute, and then her face softened. "Were you afraid to tell me this before, sweetie?" she asked. "Did you think I would be disgusted, or prejudiced? Because I'm not. I happen to have no problems with werewolves. As long as you like him and he likes you, that's great."

Tonks looked down. "I know. Sorry. You're not mad at me for not trusting you, are you? Because...I just really want you to approve of him."

"Of course I'm not mad, Tonks!" Allegria replied, pulling her into a hug. "And I do approve of Remus...he's great for you!" She gave Tonks a reassuring squeeze, then pulled away. "Now that we've gotten that out of the way, what are we here for?"

Tonks started to scan a small table full of books on various potions. "Well...I'm hoping to also get him something else, but...I'm going to try and learn how to make wolfsbane for him. Currently, Severus Snape prepares it for him--do you remember Snape?"

Allegria shuddered. "Of course I remember him. No wonder you want to start preparing it for him yourself. But sweetie...it's really very complicated, and it's not that I don't have faith in you...but...are you sure? I mean, you're always so busy, and once a month...I mean..."

"Of course I'm sure," Tonks said confidently. "I know I'm really not great at potions, but I'm determined to figure this one out. And he also really can't afford the ingredients, so..."

"Well, I'm sure he'll definitely appreciate it," Allegria said confidently. Tonks finally found the page detailing the wolfsbane potion. Handing it to her friend, she started to scan the shelves. "Could you help me find some of these ingredients?"

They both searched for a few minutes, and eventually, they finally found all of the ingredients. They brought them up the the counter, where a bored looking man was working as clerk.

"Is this all?" he said slowly, looking rather curiously at the ingredients.

"Yes, this is all," Tonks said firmly, paying quickly and exiting the rather gloomy shop.

"Okay, is there anything else you want to get?" Allegria asked, taking some of Tonks bags to carry.

"Well, I want to get him something else...I mean, I'm hoping he'll appreciate this, but still...I have no idea what he would want, though."

"Well..." Allegria said, thinking hard. "How about...I know you said his clothes are kind of shabby, and you don't want to remind him of his money problem, but you don't have to get him a whole new set of robes. How about a scarf or gloves or something?"

Tonks remembered his worn out gloves that she had worn when they went on their stakeout. "Good idea," she said, relieved to have her shopping trip coming to an end. They popped into a clothing shop, where Tonks quickly found a matching scarf and glove set that she was sure he would like. They finally exited Diagon Alley, rather tired. "Thanks for helping me, Allegria," she said, giving her friend a large smile. "I wouldn't have been able to do it without you."

"No problem," her friend replied, handing her all of the bags that she had been helping her carry. "I would help you bring these back, but I should get home now...stop by tomorrow, so I can give you your Christmas gift!"

"Alright," Tonks said. "Happy Christmas, Allegria! Thanks again!"

"Happy Christmas," her friend replied, waving. "And good luck with Remus...in more ways than one!"

Tonks gave a slight groan as her friend gave her a suggestive wink before turning on the spot and Apparating away. She realized that her friend and Sirius would probably be perfect for each other, and they would make great partners in crime. Tonks made a mental note to introduce them to each other if she ever could.

She managed to make her way back to Grimmauld Place after stopping at her flat to dump some of the presents onto her bed. She brought the Weasleys', Harry's and Sirius' gifts to Grimmauld, where she wrapped them and left them in a small pile near the door.

Heading downstairs, she was greeted in the kitchen by the Weasleys, Remus, and Sirius.

"Wotcher," she greeted them. She was met with a chorus of replies. The children, and Molly, looked noticeably cheerier than they had at the hospital. She sat down across from Sirius.

"You get everything alright?" he asked, giving her a small grin.

"Yes," she replied, smiling. "My gifts are by the door, if you wouldn't mind delivering them to their individual recipients for tomorrow?" He nodded and gave her a mock salute. "Thank you." She turned to Remus, who was sitting next to her. "So what are the plans for tomorrow?"

"Moody and I are accompanying the Weasleys to visit Arthur," Remus said from beside her. "Then I was thinking we could leave them alone for a little bit with Sirius here--" he ignored Sirius' grin.

"We could go to my flat for a little bit," Tonks suggested. "I sort of need to show you my gift, and it would be nice if it was in private--oh, stop it, it's nothing like that!" she snapped at Sirius, who's eyebrows were raising higher and higher as his smile became wider. "It's just that I thought it would be nice to be alone for a little while." She gave up on reprimanding Sirius.

"That sounds nice," Remus replied, giving Sirius a look. "I'll come by tomorrow after going to St. Mungo's, then."

"Alright," Tonks said, giving him a smile.

The rest of the evening was spent in happy celebration as everyone helped to put decorations up. Tonks was happy to see Sirius in such a good mood. Having so many people around the house had made him downright gleeful. He was prancing around, singing as he put his decorations up. After a while, Remus decided to make his exit. He pulled Tonks into his room while everybody was busy trying to reverse the charm that the Weasley twins had put upon the garland, which tried to strangle anybody that laid a hand on them.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he said. "I'm a bit tired, and I just decided to let the Weasleys have a rest for a little bit without too many visitors around."

"I'll probably head home, too," Tonks said. "Happy Christmas, Remus." She stepped forward and threw her arms around his neck in a backbreaking hug. He chuckled and gave her a large squeeze back. She drew back enough so that her face was even with his, and gave him a kiss.

"We'd better get going," Remus said, reluctantly letting go of her waist and letting his arms drop to his side.

"Okay," she said, smoothing his hair down, which was slightly tousled. "See you tomorrow!"

They gave each other one more quick kiss, and then quickly and quietly exited the room, where they managed to make it downstairs without anyone noticing that they had gone. They quickly said bye to everyone, and they managed to leave without much fuss, as everyone was now engaged in war with the Christmas baubles, which were charmed to stick in some unfortunate places on anyone that tried to hang them anywhere. They quickly closed the door, cutting off Fred and George's sniggers and Mrs. Weasley's yelling. They said goodbye to each other once more, then Apparated to their separate homes. After setting the ingredients for Remus' potion in her room and wrapping his scarf and gloves, she crawled into bed, exhausted.

* * *

Tonks awoke the next morning to the tapping on her window. Groggily, she stumbled out of bed and opened the window to find that it was snowing, and that there was an owl tapping impatiently. Pulling the owl into her room, she untied the scroll of parchment and unraveled it. It was from Allegria.

_Happy Christmas, sweetie!_

_I don't know what your plans are for today, but if you would like, you and Remus could come over tonight. I met this new guy--Michael--sorry, I forgot to tell you the other day. He's great, and he seems really excited to meet you--I told him all about you. Don't worry, I didn't tell him about Remus' 'condition'--I know that you would want that kept private. Anyway, send me a reply, and if you're up to it, stop by with Remus at around six at my place--I'll have a load of food and stuff. Love you, sweetie, and Happy Christmas!!_

_Love,_

_Allegria_

Tonks smiled. It was so like Allegria to already have another boyfriend, but she knew her friend had good sense and wouldn't see a guy that wasn't decent. She scrawled a quick reply on the back:

_Hey, Happy Christmas to you, too!_

_That sounds great, thanks for the invite! I'll ask Remus if he wants to come; I'm sure he will. So we'll probably be there!_

_Love,_

_Tonks_

She sent the parchment back with the owl, and flopped down on her bed. Glancing at the clock, she realized that it was already almost eleven thirty. Unsure of what time Remus would be by, she decided to get ready fairly soon. Almost as if her thoughts had been read, she heard another owl tapping on the window, this time with a note from Remus.

_Hi, Nymphadora, Happy Christmas._

_I just wanted to let you know that I'll be by around one o'clock; if that sounds good, send me a reply._

_Love,_

_Remus_

She quickly wrote back that one sounded great, and added in Allegria's invitation. She sent it off, and headed to her closet to face the daunting task of what to wear.

Normally, she didn't care too much about how she looked--she liked looking good, but it had never really mattered this much before. Glancing at her rather large array of clothing, she decided that she would abandon her usual jeans and wear a skirt. Deciding upon a rather strange colored plum skirt, she set about the task of finding a shirt. She pulled out a green shirt, but then decided that it made her look too much like Barney, and she threw it aside. Instead, she pulled out a small black top, and trying it on, decided it was perfect. It clung to all of the right places, and it actually went with purple skirt. She pulled out some black leather boots, surveyed the outfit that was laid out on her bed, and nodded, satisfied. She heard a tap on the window and realized that Remus must have sent his reply. She opened the window and took the message from the bird. Remus' message said that Allegria's invite sounded nice. She placed it on her bed, took a quick shower, and got dressed. Deciding on shoulder length, dark brown curls, she applied a bit of makeup and then waited. Glancing at the clock, she saw that it was only noon. To pass the time, she scribbled a quick letter to her parents, saying that she would visit the next day. After she sent that, she checked to make sure that Remus' gift was ready, then watched TV until she heard a knock on the door. Jumping up from the couch, she walked quickly into the entrance hallway and opened the door to see Remus standing there, smiling.

"Happy Christmas," he said, giving her a quick hug.

"You too," she replied, grinning. "Come in, come in...so are you up for Allegria's at six?"

"Yes, that sounds nice," he said. She took his traveling cloak for him, and led him into the living room. "I'm touched that she included me."

Tonks laughed. "She's been dying to meet you again. I figured we'd be stuffing ourselves at her place, so I didn't really make much food...but if you get hungry, I can try to whip something together." They sat on the couch, and he settled down, smiling at her.

"Would you like to exchange gifts now?" he asked. Tonks considered saving it for later for about a split second, but then she nodded.

"Yeah," she said, trying and failing not to sound too eager. Remus chuckled rather nervously.

"Here you go , then," he said, handing her a small box wrapped in metallic green wrapping paper.

"It's not much, but I just thought it would suit you." Tonks gently ripped open the green wrapping paper to reveal a small red velvet box. Opening it, she gasped at the necklace inside. It was simple, yet beautiful. On a delicate, intricate chain, there was a small, shining pendant shaped like a raindrop, and set into the center of the raindrop was a glittering opal. Turning it different ways, the opal flashed different colors. "It's beautiful..."

"Like I said, it's not much, but--"

"Remus, this is more than enough. It's gorgeous. I love it." She carefully lifted it out of the box and handed it to him. She lifted her hair, and he fastened it around her neck. She glanced down, admiring the glitter of the necklace against her skin. "Thank you," she whispered, and then leaned forward and kissed him softly. He deepened the kiss, pulling her closer, and she complied happily. After a few happy minutes of snogging like hormonal teenagers, Tonks suddenly remembered that she hadn't given him his gift yet.

She sat up quickly, her hair tousled and her lips slightly puffy. "I almost forgot!" she said breathlessly. "You need your gift!"

Remus smiled. "This is a good enough gift right here," he joked.

"No, that was just me thanking you for the necklace," she said. "But if you like your gift, I wouldn't mind you thanking me in a similar way..."

He laughed as she hopped off the couch, pulling him up. "I'll bring you the first one, but you'll have to come see the second one." She ran into her room and grabbed the box that she had wrapped for him, entered back into the living room, and set it in his lap. "Here's the first one."

He unwrapped it to reveal the scarf and gloves. He beamed at her. "Thank you," he said. "I definitely needed some new ones...my old ones were rather worn."

Tonks waved a dismissive hand. "Well, that's kind of impersonal, so I got you something else...come into my room." She led him into her bedroom, and her heart pounding, pointed to the corner where she had arranged the ingredients for the Wolfsbane. His brow wrinkled, he stepped closer, stooping to pick up the potion book to read the page that she had left it open at. Still looking confused, he inspected the ingredients. Suddenly, it dawned on him, and he stood up to face her.

"Oh, Nymphadora..." he said, half-smiling. "You don't have to do that for me."

"Of course I do," she said, blushing slightly. "You honestly don't want Snape making it, do you?"

He laughed. "Well, no...but really. This is so much work, and--"

"You think that you're not worth it?" she said defiantly. "Because you are. You definitely are. I'm willing to do it for you. I _want _to do it for you."

He stared at her for moment, an odd look on his face, and then he suddenly stepped forward and pulled her into a hug. "Thank you so much," he mumbled into her shoulder. "Really. You don't know how much this means to me."

"So do you like your gift?" she asked. "You aren't afraid that I'll mess up and kill you or something?"

"Of course not!" he replied, relinquishing his grasp on her. "I have total faith in you."

"Okay, good," she said relieved. "Don't worry, I'll read over everything carefully, I'll get it just right, I promise--"

"Nymphadora, I trust you," he said. She was so happy that she forgot to tell him not to call her by her given name.

Suddenly, she stepped forward, an impish smile on her face. "Well, since you like it...I think a certain thanks is in order?"

He grinned at her. "Certainly," he said, meeting her lips once again. She sighed happily, unable to think of anyone else who she would rather be spending her Christmas with. This was definitely a very happy Christmas.

**A/N Okay, so I kind of updated this chapter a bit, took a few parts out, edited some stuff...so it's nothing big, just perfecting the chapter a bit!  
**


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